The New York Restaurant Reservation Scrum
![inside of Carbone, a fancy restaurant in New York](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6400f5db669916305f63913b/663a8b933e4294a5242642be_BNyj4rtkX2uQaTfTQencZZ_6fxZsQ2S5MntcW25Ln3p4cAYmT8fI0KOhlehz3uw6UHVhqCPnUFLNyfyVm1VMLtOiMofBsWi3jX-QPy-39_xLvY54uQMNAe9nrtFeHYEmBjc_uoXHiowiJ734GsgCH_M.jpeg)
Scoring a table in New York can seem impossible. One person made $80,000 last year reselling restaurant reservations.
Restaurant-goers are breaking out the checkbook for a chance to dine at some of the most exclusive restaurants in the city, per The New Yorker:
- A lunch table at Maison Close sold for $815
- Dinner tables at 4 Charles Prime Rib went for $500-1,000
- A reservation at Carbone regularly fetches $1,000
However, even with the high demand for reservations, restaurants lose money when restaurant-goers don’t show up for their reservations.
As a result, some New York restaurants are switching back to the old-school reservation protocol of answering the phone and writing your name in a reservation book. No email, no OpenTable, no Yelp.
Some popular New York restaurants have stopped taking reservations altogether, sidestepping the reservation scrum. Ugly Baby, a popular Thai spot in Brooklyn, is the latest to no longer accept reservations. Instead, people form a line hours in advance to land a seat at the 5 p.m. opening.
May the reservation odds be ever in your favor.