Glossary

Turn and burn

What does turn and burn mean?

Turn and burn is the high-volume style of service where tables are turned as fast as hospitality allows: seat, serve, drop the check, reset, repeat. It is the operating mode of busy brunch spots, taquerias and any room where the line out the door is the business model. The craft is doing it without guests feeling rushed: pacing the kitchen so courses land promptly, pre-bussing, dropping the check with dessert instead of after a lap of the room. Turn-and-burn rooms live on short turn times and often skew toward walk-ins and waitlists rather than reservations, because a queue absorbs demand more flexibly than a book.