it was around 7 pm when i went there with a couple of friends. there was a waiter at the entrance and we told him that we are going to have few drinks and asked for a table ( half of the tables at the outside area were free and inside was completely empty). the waiter looked very troubled, said he can't help and asked for the help of the manager. then the
manager approached us in a non- welcoming way and said that they are about to start the food service, so we can't sit outside as all the tables outside are meant for eating and not just drinking. the thing is, we never even mentioned that we wanted to sit outside, we just asked for a table. i can think of lots of ways of welcoming a guest and a welcome just with "no" is not one of them. why not just to say "yes, sure, please come inside, have a sit at this table" instead of giving troubled looks.
let's say, a customer asks for a table outside, then again, the manager can offer to wait inside and if reserved tables stay empty then switch. it's always about giving options instead of just saying no and make your guest unwanted.
we still had our drinks inside - we were there for a business meeting and what we actually needed was a quite place to talk.