In restaurant jargon, “covers” means the number of guests served or seats available: “we did 120 covers tonight” means 120 people served. It’s the basic unit of a dining room’s volume.
In Italian the word is coperti — and it shouldn’t be confused with the coperto (singular, the charge): though both come from the same idea — the “set place at the table” — here it means the guest/seat, not the line on the bill. An “80-cover restaurant” has 80 seats.
Why it’s a central number
The cover count underlies almost every floor metric: the average check is revenue divided by covers, RevPASH relates revenue to available seats, and table turnover measures how many times each seat is reused. Knowing how many covers to expect by daypart is also the basis for sizing staff and purchasing.
Frequently asked questions
- What does 'covers' mean in a restaurant?
- The number of guests served or seats: '100 covers' means 100 people served. It's the unit of a dining room's volume, not to be confused with the coperto charge on the bill.
- What's the difference between 'covers' and the 'coperto'?
- 'Covers' (Italian coperti, plural) means the guests/seats served; the 'coperto' (singular) is the small fixed charge on the bill for the table setting. Same origin, two different meanings.