Vom Sinn bedeutet das "wenn weniger los ist". Aber so hübsch mit der Wiederholung von "fallen" ... das wird schwer.

Siehe Wörterbuch: footfall

footfall   - number of customers to a shop in a given time [WIRTSCH.] die Kundenfrequenz  Pl.: die Kundenfrequenzen

#2: Aber so hübsch mit der Wiederholung von "fallen" ...

It's interesting that you see it that way, I thought it was just the author being clumsy.

I assumed it was deliberate. In fact, I thought it was a deliberate attempt at a poetic sentence (partly due to the comma use):

In that time between lunch and dinner,

when footfall has fallen,

the restaurant quietens,

until it’s empty.

OT, but can the verb "quieten" be used to mean "become quieter" without "down"? I wasn't sure, I don't hear that verb very often, it's more BE, right? "Quiet" works that way in AE, it is used to mean "become quieter", usually with "down" but sometimes without.

Genau, ich dachte auch, dass das Absicht ist und poetisch sein soll. Ob das jetzt gelungen ist oder nicht, da kann man bestimmt streiten.

Ich habe "fallen" als Doppeldeutigkeit gesehen, einerseits auf die Anzahl der Kunden bezogen ("when the number of customers has fallen") und andererseits auf das tatsächliche Geräusch der Schritte ("when all the feet have fallen, all the footsteps have faded away"), so in der Art.

#9 In fact, I thought it was a deliberate attempt at a poetic sentence (partly due to the comma use)

It may be. One does notice the multiple commas.

#8 The second sentence sounds like pretty normal informal English to me,

"There's" followed by a plural, yes.

But not "a couple hours", surely? I thought the author/narrator must be American.