Yeah, the Austrian guy probably wasn't the owner of the establishment and didn't want the overtime work with keeping the place opened for longer than his contract?
BTW, was that in Vienna? They're so famous for their rudeness it's a running meme now.
It was a small place on the "bench" southwest of Innsbruck, so I don't think that was the situation. He was more just like "we close at 6 sorry". In Italy, the guy most likely would have been "look, we're about to close, so I can't seat you, and our kitchen's shut down, but..." and he probably would have figured out a way to send us on our way with something.
BTW, was that in Vienna? They're so famous for their rudeness it's a running meme now.