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Calling time: Spanish bars limit how long customers can nurse a drink

A Bilbao bar has established time limits for drinking a coffee or a beer

During the coronavirus pandemic, when hospitality venues were cautiously beginning to reopen, several countries implemented time limits on how long patrons could stay in bars and restaurants to cope with the renewed demand for entertainment following lockdowns.

Now, for different reasons entirely, a tiny Spanish bar has called time on how long customers can sit on its terrace in a desperate attempt to increase turnover. The Bilbao boozer, which has only three tables outside, has shocked and amused visitors with its new signs, explaining that patrons have a very strict time limit: 15 minutes for a coffee, 25 minutes for a beer and a more generous 40 minutes for dink accompanied by a sandwich.

“We only had a couple of tables outside and we barely have room inside,” the manager of Pepi&To, Luna Barria, explained. “It was during confinement when we set that standard and we have expanded it.”

The restrictions have been met with mixed opinions: many people agree that the allotted time is more than fair but others resent having to bolt down their drink to make way for fresh customers.

One staff member at the bar explained that the owners had seen the idea in another establishment at the height of the pandemic and decided to give it a go, and it appears to be working.

The time limit has increased turnover, he said, by moving on patrons who can often linger too long over a newspaper or a book without spending any additional money.

According to Ms Berria, in general, people take it “quite well”, although there are those who “have been somewhat angry at imposing that rule on them”. However, according to the manager, customers always end up coming back because “we have the best beers and the best sirloin pintxo in Bilbao”.

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