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And how to score a reservation
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.
In Pictures: The Toughest Tables in the U.S.
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.
It’s not uncommon for the staff of Washington D.C.’s six seat and usually sold out minibar to find people banging on the door at 8:30 A.M., trying to beat the 9 A.M. opening of the phone reservation line for its 30-day-in-advance seats. At another hotspot, Chicago’s Alinea, which books up two months in advance for a weekend spot, they’re accustomed to begging and pleading.
“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 AM and noon.
Like Meadowood, big city hotels that funnel many of their guests to the city’s restaurants sometimes have an inside track. As Randy Ross, assistant chief concierge of New York’s Four Seasons Hotel explains, they call Per Se every day to waitlist guests, so they know the restaurant’s managers well; out of 100 requests, they have a success rate of 10-15. But even with the Four Seasons’ clout, there are some tables that elude them.
“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.” MORE...
In Pictures: The Toughest Tables in the U.S.
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