restaurant puzzle

[fastupslowdown]

anyone experience this. its not the first time either. restaurants that you have to wait a month for a reservation but when actually dining you see empty tables. is this some stupid way to make the place seem hot? last night it happened to me at a very high end restaurant in ny, but its happened before too. -mike g

[NYCfixie]

My personal frustration is with the restaurants that think they are too new/trendy/good/hot/cool to even take reservations.

They want you to show up, stand in line for hours, drink at the bar until they feel like bestowing an empty table by the bathroom on you, and then rush you through dinner so they can seat the next couple/group who has been waiting forever for the same humiliation. This seems to be the new norm in the Boston area and it effin sucks.

I have told my wife that I really do not care how new and trendy the restaurant is because unless they take a reservation I am not interested.

[rabo]

Great story in the New Yorker last year about that one man restaurant with a 20 year waiting list.
Maybe the waiting list will make you desirable.

[Sinclair]

Great story in the New Yorker last year about that one man restaurant with a 20 year waiting list.
Maybe the waiting list will make you desirable.

Great story in that cycling magazine about that one man frame building shop with a 5 year waiting list. Maybe the waiting list will make you desirable....

(for the record, not blaming the framebuilder, or the restaurant, which only leaves one person...)

[dgaddis]

anyone experience this. its not the first time either. restaurants that you have to wait a month for a reservation but when actually dining you see empty tables. is this some stupid way to make the place seem hot? last night it happened to me at a very high end restaurant in ny, but its happened before too. -mike g

Folks who make a reservation but then don't show up is my guess.

If it were my place I'd require a deposit for a reservation, and the deposit goes towards your meal, but if you don't show, it's not refunded.

[fastupslowdown]

Great story in that cycling magazine about that one man frame building shop with a 5 year waiting list. Maybe the waiting list will make you desirable....

(for the record, not blaming the framebuilder, or the restaurant, which only leaves one person...)

Supposedly the finest restaurant in Girona is El Celler de Can Roca, only I could never make a reservation. It was impossible. I gave up and discovered so many great restaurants there, that I no longer have even the slightest interest. -Mike G

[spopepro]

Restaurants figure out how much volume they do by how many tops (tables) they can turn in a night. If you assume a couple of things 1) It is unacceptable to make a guest wait for their table past their reservation time and 2) it is unacceptable to ask a guest to hurry up and leave so the next guest can be seated then you need to have some flexibility in how people are seated. Now, no one cares about these things at casual/high volume places, but they are indeed unacceptable requests to make of guests at finer establishments. The general goal for most nice places is to turn each top once, seating two parties at the same table in a night. This can't always be done perfectly, because that 7:00 reservation will likely mean that table needs to sit empty until the party is seated, to ensure it is open, and while you might be able to turn it after, it will probably be too late to seat someone. Sometimes early guests are spending big and enjoying a long night and that table won't get turned. Sometimes people will eat quickly and two turns can be made. So there needs to be some buffer of open tables to ensure everyone can be accommodated in time. It's also why very, very fancy places will only seat one party at a table per night just to make absolutely sure there's never any uncertainty.

Here's an example: last Saturday my wife and I made a 5:45 reservation at a nice, very traditional place. I'm sure when pouring over the books they thought that for sure they would be able to take an 8:00-8:30 and have plenty of time. We left at 9, and were the only ones to occupy our table the whole night. If they had booked everyone tight, they would have been screwed, so an open table somewhere else allowed for that 8:30 they thought would be at our table to be seated on time.

[Mabouya]

last Saturday my wife and I made a 5:45 reservation at a nice, very traditional place.
:
:
We left at 9

Wow - how much wine was that? ;)