Comment by everforward

The wait staff may not have even realized they were waiting for service. I’ve used booths in an empty section not expecting or wanting service.

Eg I’ve borrowed an empty booth for 5 or 10 minutes in an empty section when I got paged while out to dinner. I didn’t expect any service.

I’ve also done it when I was out to eat and got bad news. I needed a minute alone, and outside the restaurant is usually very much not “alone”.