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No reservations — toughest tables in the U.S.
America’s most sought after dining spots (and tips on getting in!)
 | If you want a reservation at Babbo in New York, you might need to book a month in advance. You would think that a restaurant that’s been open for nine years would have cooled by now, but superstar chef Mario Batali’s vivid, creative Italian is as tough a table today as when it opened. There are also walk-in tables but they’re mobbed too, unless you’re first in the door at 5 p.m. |
Wally Gobetz |
New York’s Waverly Inn is, from all outward appearances, a restaurant, open to the public for the purpose of serving food. But if you’re John Q. Public, just try getting a table —particularly a prime banquette in the star-filled, gossip column chronicled front room. For starters, you can’t call for reservations (there's no phone line for mere mortals). You have to call famous co-owner Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, or the secret phone line administered by one his partners, Emil Warda. Neither will respond unless you’ve been vetted as authentic. If so (and you’re not banished to the rear room Siberia), you’ll get a chance to try the restaurant’s signature $55 truffled mac and cheese within air kissing distance of Gwyneth, Bono, or Graydon himself.
As tough as that reservation is, though, it doesn’t compare to scoring one of the eleven tables at Rao’s, a Harlem institution known as much for its closed door policy as for its ziti. Tables belong to members, and unless you’re Rudy Giuliani, former detective Bo Dietl or a reincarnated Frank Sinatra (he was a big fan), you’re not getting in. Don’t even try calling: the phone message on their advertised phone line says the restaurant is booked all year, and they’re not returning calls, so don’t even bother leaving a number.
Somewhat more accommodating are Thomas Keller’s East and West Coast outposts, Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in Napa Valley — as long as diners get to the phone lines the second they open and book two months in advance. In some cases, incoming guests rely on the restaurants’ relationships with area hotels.
“We generally ask the guest whether they want a French Laundry reservation when we first speak to them,” explains Pam Hugo, assistant to the general manager at nearby Meadowood. “We have a great relationship with the restaurant and even within the 60 day limit, sometimes we get lucky. I’ve seen reservations open an hour before so we get guests’ cell phone numbers and call them. It’s like winning the lottery. They get very excited.”
That a dinner reservation can be compared to a lotto jackpot is a symptom of the restaurant mania that has taken root in recent years. With the rise of chefs as celebrities, and the proliferation of food blogs detailing news and gossip from the restaurant world at a level once reserved for Hollywood stars, there’s even more pressure for the food-obsessed to score a table at the most in demand restaurant, particularly at prime time (7-8 p.m.). And would-be diners will do almost anything to get in.
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“We find it very flattering,” says Julie Hyatt, office manager at the restaurant. “ When people call up, drop the chef’s name [Grant Achatz] and mispronounce it, though, it’s pretty obvious that they’re making it up.”
But like many restaurants, Alinea compiles a waiting list, and would-be diners can get lucky. “Because we’re known nationally, we have guests coming in from other cities,” says Hyatt. “With flight delays at O’Hare, that means we get cancellations and will start calling people on the list.” Prospective diners can try calling the day they want a reservation, preferably between 10 a.m. and noon.
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Timothy Griffith Wolfgang Puck’s sleek Beverly Hills steakhouse, with elite menu items such as filet mignon carpaccio with Perigord black truffles and a half pound pure Japanese Wagyu ribeye steak (for $160), is obviously popular. But there is a waitlist, and area concierges such as Peninsula Beverly Hills chef concierge James Little sometimes have a special edge when the 30 day rule closes it out to the general public. |
“Babbo [Mario Batali’s Greenwich Village Italian that has been sold out 30 days in advance since its opening in 1998] is our worst nightmare,” he says. “It’s always no. They don’t have a waitlist so if there’s a cancellation, they don’t play favorites. Generally if guests ask for it, we try to make other suggestions.”
Because of these generally closed door policies, restaurant booking web sites have recently emerged, functioning the way ticket brokers do with sold out concerts and sporting events—for a price, that coveted table can be yours. Pascal Riffaud started PrimeTime Tables (www.primetimetables.com) because as the owner of a concierge service, Personal Concierge International, scoring tables for his clients was one of his most in demand services. “I was always frustrated because I couldn’t get tables for good clients when it was last minute,” he says. “So I had to figure out a way to get around it. Businesspeople don’t know where they’re going to be thirty days in advance.”
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