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Sit and wait for the check at a Paris bistro and you might still be sitting there an hour later — it's genuinely never brought unprompted, since doing so is considered rushing the guest. Try that same patient waiting game at a busy diner in New York and you'll just be holding up the next table. Neither pace is wrong; they're just built on completely different assumptions about what a considerate server does. Knowing which one you've walked into means you spend the meal enjoying it, not wondering why nobody's bringing the bill.