I had a good friend for a while who owned a popular sandwich shop. He knew all of the restaurant managers in town because they all grew up together in the industry cooking at places or working for catering companies. When we’d show up, we’d get the next table. Everyone else would get pushed back. They didn’t keep extra empty tables sitting around and I doubt that’s how most places handle that. That would be absurd. They just always have a little slop in their schedule to accommodate any change that might occur. It eventually evens out.
One thing that characterizes Santa Barbara is that we tend to ignore celebrities who come to town. That’s why they love to come and since it’s a beautiful place and it’s close to L.A. It’s a double edged sword because they don’t generally get special treatment. I was at one of best restaurants in town for Valentines Day with my then wife and a young actor who was currently in one of the top running sitcoms at the time showed up with his girlfriend and asked for a table. He was told that there was no room and that they had been fully booked for weeks. He was totally cool about it but the incredulous look on his face was classic.
A friend and I were at a bar where a fairly big name group was playing in the performance space (it may have been Wilco). They took our table to sell merchandise, but in return bought us all the beer we could imbibe.
If hey end up pushing the VIP to the head of the line, that doesn’t exactly cancel anyone else’s reservation. People don’t have reservations for individual tables, just for a time, and every restaurant I’ve seen that takes reservations doesn’t exactly guarantee that time.
Moving one person up doesn’t mean that anyone is delayed for the full time of a seating, but just until the next table clears up. reservations get delayed sometimes just because people take longer to eat than the restaurant estimates, and sometimes there are empty tables, even though the reservation book is full, because people spent less tie eating than expected.
If it is a policy, and you get lots of VIPs crashing your restaurant every night, then that may be a problem for your reservation guests (though it’s not really all that bad a problem to have). If it is occasional, when some person shows up without a reservation that you don’t want to turn away, it’s really barely a blip to work them in.
Yep, non-VIP, but regulars, get special treatment.
Some friends & I go to a local chain restaurant nearly every Wednesday lunchtime. We have to have a table, not a booth, because of one disabled person, and we want a place in our favorite waitresses’ section.
We always get one.
Even if all the tables in her section are full, they will re-assign other tables to her as needed to make it work.
I think successful restaurants value a regular customer way more than a VIP who might come in rarely or even only one time.
Totally agree. When I was married, my wife and I were regulars at one spot. We’d generally make a reservation but if we didn’t we’d always get fit in. Even better, He’d have off menu specials only for regulars. Usually it would be a thing like he saw a really good piece of fish at the fish market in the morning but only enough for three or four meals. The couple who ran it retired. I really miss it.
As someone mentioned upthread, the patron doesn’t have to be famous to get special treatment.
My wife and I have contracted with a local restaurant 4 times in recent years to cater parties at our home. As an aside, they do a fantastic job with guest prep, attending to arriving and mingling guests, serving drinks and hors’ deouvres, and taking and serving entree and desert orders. At the end of the evening they leave our home as pristine as they found it.
Whenever my wife takes a friend or work colleague to the restaurant the staff gush over her and somehow always have a table for her regardless how crowded it is. We just look at it as a perq for all the catering business we’ve given them.
When I started dating my now-wife, I wanted to impress her on one of our early dates. I called a hot new restaurant (this is LA btw) and asked for two people, Saturday 8 PM. Sorry, booked full. A la the Spy article referenced above, I called back and said “I’m the assistant to X, a producer on (currently hot show).”
I didn’t totally lie, I was really a producer on the hot show, but I figured having an “assistant” would make me look more like a big shot (I wasn’t). I got the reservation.
Not sure how well this trick would work every time, I’ve never pushed my luck with it again, but it does go to show that if I can get a table this way, real celebrities can with ease.
If the place is fancy enough to have a Maitre D, (or even if they don’t) someone that is not even all that important might slip to the front of the line. I was once married into a family who felt compelled to make reservations every time a meal was eaten outside the home. Now they never once ate fast food or at crappy diners in all my time with them—but they were comical about ‘being proper’ in regard to announcing their dinning plans. (Many funny stories over the years derived from this quirk.)
My sister-in-law lived in Las Vegas, and she considered herself a minor celebrity because she was occasionally mentioned in the local interest portion of the business section of the paper. She was an officer in a middling sized company and while we all admired her, absolutely no one outside her family thought she was all that impressive. True to her upbringing, when my wife and I visited she made reservations for the three of us at a nice place; might have been in the shops under Caesar’s Palace, or the recently completed Venetian. In any case, we arrived a few minutes late and we had to wait for a table. She was hungry and snippy, and she kept dropping her own name like it was Getty, or Morgan, or Carnegie. The guy running the front could not have been more stereotypically mobster; big guy with a crooked nose and a New York accent who was overly impressed with his own clothing and shoes. “Yea, yea, careful of the shoes- they’r new!” came out of his mouth at least four times while we were waiting. Finally, he promises my sister-in-law the very next table; “don’t worry several parties are paying the bill so tables will turn soon” he tells her. So shut the F up and leave me the F alone was the subtext. A party leaves, he nods toward us, and as we approach this good looking over perfumed couple steps in front of us and asks for the next table. “Sure, it is kinda busy, but yes sir we will have a table for you real soon. Let me just seat this other party.” We are standing right there by then. The man says “let me talk to you for a minute”, they turn their backs to us and have a private conversation. There is a handshake the host says without turning; “Jennifer honey, show this couple to 34”. And off they go to take our table. The guy turns around then and sees us still standing there. He tells us: “listen, that was a shit table- I’ve got a real good table for you coming up any second. I stuck that guy with that looser table. You’ve got our best table coming up.”
We stood there for about forty seconds, then the sister-in-law decided she had had enough. She picked up her purse and briefcase and marched up to the host guy and gave him a piece of her mind. His boss was certainly going to hear from her, and so were the papers!! By god! Then we huffed over to a shoe boutique where she spent four-hundred twenty dollars ($420.00) on a pair of leopard print high heels that were marked down from an even more ridicules amount. I am pretty sure the maitre D neither noticed nor cared, but her sister and I surely knew she was a person of means and import as we left the shoe store! I am not sure how long we were in that shop, but we came out to search for an even better more exclusive place- - - and the original place no longer had any line and was actually half empty. The host was now a hostess and we waltzed into the place that was packed an hour before. Timing it seems, is everything.
And as far as VIP’s are concerned, it is my understanding that the secret to having a successful restaurant lay entirely upon having a VIP like say, Louis Prima dine at your establishment.
Be sure to invite local press, have fresh floral arrangements, and numerous non-paying guests at the dinner.
You don’t even need to be a VIP. I am about as far from a VIP as you get but my GF and I are regulars at a few restaurants. The owners have told me if no reservations are available to just have someone get them and they will find us a spot. I’ve only had occasion to test it once and sure enough they got us in (usually we make reservations so this is not an issue). I seriously doubt they bumped anyone for us but I do not really know except that they did get us seated in relatively short order.
We eat at a tiny Italian restaurant once a month or so. They do not take reservations. But, every time you walk in and tell the hostess you would like to eat dinner, you are asked if you have reservations. Of course, you say no, since they do not take reservations. We’ve called and attempted to make reservations several times, each time we are told that they do not take reservations.
The food is excellent, they are BYOB without a corkage fee, and the owner will sit and share a glass of your wine if you invite her. It’s a great place overall. You just have to chill when you’re asked if you have reservations.
ETA: the other fun thing about the restaurant is that the owner (a 70-something year old Italian grandma) drops F-bombs left and right during conversation.
It’s not that uncommon in local eateries outside of large metros. In smaller areas, retail space is less expensive and less of a premium. They’ll keep a room for ‘banquets’ or overflow that is well in excess of what they normally need for their clientelle. Typically, they are used for banquets or wedding receptions or the like, but can be press-ganged into service fairly quickly if there happens to be an abnormally large crowd on a given night.
… and if you’re famous, you don’t have to be a regular to get special treatment.
One of my friends was married to a famous name. Not even a famous person, just part of that persons extended family, with the family name. They could always get a reservation on the same night, by using her name, and when they arrived, they’d get the window table.
Obviously, that’s not the same as just arriving and getting a table, but then she wasn’t even personally famous.
Not that I would know- capital ‘K’, but it seems to me taking the job might sort of imply that you have agreed to be …… flexible with regard to strict letter of the law enforcement of what is essentially a list. As others have mentioned, adding one name near the top only delays the next party by a few minutes.
In addition, predicting how long a party will hold a table is not an exact science. I would imagine when taking reservations the business allows for the occasional slow turning table. I am also sure they train their staff to hustle parties out as politely and as quickly as possible. “If there is nothing else, here is your bill I will be your cashier. Would you like me to wrap the remainder of your meal? Or perhaps you would like a container?” If that is unsuccessful, maybe: “You are welcome to take your drinks to the bar. Would you like me to find you a table in there?” As a last ditch effort: “My manager would like to buy you a round of drinks in the bar, I will reserve a table for you and have the drinks delivered there. Our hostess will be here in a moment to escort you over to your new table”.
In a high end environment, having people waiting for tables is desirable. It proves the value of the place if many people are willing to wait for a table. But there are just some people you do not want waiting; they may cause a scene, or annoy and offend other parties, or make threats- figuratively (one hopes). Someone in charge knows enough to just pocket the money and get them the hell away from the door as soon as possible. Of course then he or she needs to check the amount, if it is one or two founding fathers we like- okay. (Poor Richard is a favorite, but that former Union General is acceptable- especially if he is a twin. ‘Ol Hickory better have some companions if the place is real nice.) If it is a Lincoln and two Washington’s- - that diner is liable to get a drink spilled in his lap or worse. The thing is people who think they are important enough to jump the line are not cheap. They want you to be impressed with them; they believe their success and money does entitle them to special treatment. And they do get it, if they do not you lose their business and you want their business. In my experience they also want the owner or manager to stop by personally and check that they are being treated right. He or she had better also give them a free bottle of wine/round of drinks/deserts or appetizers/etc. and it has to be done with the right tone. “I see your companion has a sweet tooth, my pastry chef has some new blah blahs drizzled with blah; may I send one for each of you?” Or: “we have a few bottles of blah from a special region or label, may I have your server pour one for you on me? Or would you prefer another round from the bar?” They will more than compensate for freebees once the check arrives. And of course, each situation is unique…… although they tend to follow a predictable pattern.
Anecdote time. About 15 years ago I worked at Channel Four in the UK. Our Chief Exec was certainly a VIP, unfortunately he was also called Michael Jackson. His PA told me that she always booked restaurants and hotels under her name, as too many people thought it was a wind up if she tried to book using his name, or got over excited thinking it was the other Michael Jackson.
I took a group to the famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. There was a long wait. One of the Chinese members of my group disappeared and came back saying he had slipped the maitre de money to seat us. I asked him where he learned to do that, and he said he saw it on Friends.
