Thanks, sounds reasonable and informative! Can you elaborate on "restaurants not doing limonade", as I'm asking in my question as well: do you know why there is this strict distinction? I'm not talking high-end here, but like folding chairs and paper placemats restaurants refusing to seat us even when we explicitly ask for just coffee. Why won't they serve us a drink, why must we eat as well? Where does that principle come from and why do they adhere to it so rigidly, if they can earn like six euros in one minute of work, while there are empty seats and idle waiters?

@CodeCaster: I'm speculating here. But coffee machines have to be cleaned regularly. If they have no diners left, they might clean the machine before the end of the shift, so they can go home earlier. So perhaps they already turned the machine off prior to cleaning it. (They might even have been happy to serve you alcohol, but no coffee.)

@CodeCaster The restaurants may just have made the business decision that serving just drinks is not profitable for them. Note that more revenue does not necessarily translate into more profit for the restaurant.

Also, while there may be free tables now, if they make a habit of letting people sit and just have a drink, that means that tables that could have been filled by diners who will pay for a full mean will instead be taken by people who'll only drop a few euros for a drink. That isn't worth it for the establishment, @CodeCaster.

@CodeCaster your question is totally mystifying. Say you are a programmer and you do javascript. And I said WHY oh WHY do you not do Swift? They run their business their way.

@CodeCaster I would be very surprised to see the kitchen closing up at 13:00. Many people will be arriving just after that time, or even a bit later. When they say they close from 14:00, that usually rather means you can't arrive after that time (or close to that time), not that they will not serve anything and throw you out at that time. It's quite probable they are expecting customs which are going to have a meal.

Closing times in bars and restaurants all over the world are quite vague terms. For some it's really the time they will throw everybody out, for others it's the time they will stop serving food, for others still it's the time they will stop accepting new customers or taking orders. And there's often a lot of variability: if they don't expect any more customers coming in they may start closing early. But standard lunch time in France is one hour sometime between 12:00 to 14:00, so no, they won't be closing at 13:00, but yes, they could perfectly well stop accepting customers at 13:30.

hi @CodeCaster sorry, really not "trolling". But they are closed it's really difficult to understand what you're asking. You know how in - say - Spain, you are familiar with the "siesta" culture. In many areas everything shuts down from say 1 to 3 in the afternoon. Your idea that they should "make another 2 dollars" to interrupt that rhythm is - it's just a difficult question to answer. What could the answer be? more simply for example, all supermarkets are closed in France on Sundays. If you said "oh why, surely they should be open as in the US or UK" what can the answer be?

@CodeCaster you're really being obtuse. In every country on Earth the system of closing restaurants/bars includes concepts like "last call" "no orders after" "we turn off the espresso machine at ..." and so on. It's incredibly easy to understand why - they don't want to again clean/setup the tables etc while getting ready for siesta; they want to achieve a certain "look,"etc. As many answers have discussed at length. But there really is no why - it's their (obviously) absolute right to run their business as they wish.

as jcaron says "they could perfectly well stop accepting customers at 13:30" ... I am presently living in the US; the local "trendy" coffee shop stops taking orders about ~45 mins before the actual "door locking" time. If we endlessly asked why, why, why, why, what is the cultural reason for this, why do they not want money, why, why, why the only answer would be "that's what the owner happens to like doing". the actual owner, herself, probably couldn't absolutely, definitely answer such a why why why question.

the Dunkin Donuts on the corner here stops taking most new orders a full hour before they officially close at I think 8pm. If you roll up at 7pm, most items they will say "oh sorry we've stopped (the brew machine / whatever)" If you happen to want a bagel or whatever and there's one left over, they'll give you one. It's really non-mysterious.

@Fattie my question is not about machines being shut off. It is about why restaurant waiters feel the need to explain why they "are not a bar". If you don't understand that distinction and insist explaining things to me that I myself can deduce (and already have), just stop trying to answer a question that I did not ask, please.

"why restaurant waiters feel the need to explain why they "are not a bar"" As Peter's excellent answer explains, businesses wish to have a certain "look" and style. It's possible they could express this rudely ("we are not a bar, get out") or they could discuss it with you at length ("in this region food culture differentiates strongly between businesses where folks 'sit around' and have coffees and drinks, and on the other hand, establishments that really focus on food; it's normal in this area to avoid 'coffee/drink customers', especially when we are quieter, it's a bad look").

@Fattie ok, so it took a few comments, but now your stance is "they wish to have a certain look and style", as opposed to "they were closed". If that's your answer, please post it as such so people can comment and vote on it. I for one wonder what look and style differs between a person having had lunch and enjoying a coffee, and a person just having coffee. You appear to be neither French nor someone in the hospitality industry, so I also wonder the source you've got for that claim. Thanks!

"closed" has various stages for eateries.(as almost everyone here has repeatedly said) Eg, McDonalds turn off their lights 30 mins before actual-closing time. Supermarkets stop allowing new customers in 15 mins before stated-closing time. Etc. The establishment you mention was closed for "coffee/drinks" as they stated very simply. the only possible answer to a question "why do they stop selling drinks at 2pm" is "because they do". I lived in France for years but I don't see that is related, really. If your point is "they were rude" -- what to say? Everyone knows that France is rude! :)

"I for one wonder what look and style differs between a person having had lunch and enjoying a coffee, and a person just having coffee." Now we are drifting to an incredibly different conversation. It's a case of "who cares" what you think or what I think. It's an incredibly normal, common, obvious attitude for hundreds of millions of people in numerous regions. When a French comes to the US, they inevitably say "Look at these fools with drive-through banks, hah, I for one wonder why they have this idiocy, a waste of money and time!" But who cares what they think?

@Fattie it's okay to leave a question alone if you don't know the answer. My question is not about that style difference, that would be a question for you if you posted that style difference as an answer. My question here also has nothing to do with closing time, as in one instance we were actually seated by the waitress who started putting down glasses and cutlery, and when we mentioned we just wanted a coffee, she snatched the glasses away and sent us away, stating they were not a bar. I have no idea what you have against me or this question, but it's clear you don't have the answer.

@Fattie It looks to me as if you may be interpreting CodeCaster's question uncharitably as, "It seems to me that the restaurants should do X; what's wrong with them that they don't?" rather than, "I do not understand why restaurants in this place don't do X when seemingly similar restaurants in other places do do X; is there some reasoning behind this that someone can explain to me?" Your responses of "that's the way they choose do it" are not useful; the OP is already well aware that's the way they choose do it, having posted the question in the first place.

@cjs i appreciate your point but you can't "explain" cultural differences. what could the explanation possibly be? i mean "why do Americans eat so much fast food" - who knows, the answer would be some sort of historical analysis? "It seems to me that the restaurants should do X" but this is exactly precisely the tone of the question and comments, repeatedly: "I'm used to any food and/or drinks serving place, having a terrace with empty seats, happily serving you a drink in exchange for your money." How can you "explain" cultural differences?!!