Regardless of what side of the reservation or no reservation debate you are on, the reality is in the long run your team must learn the art of working the door. Unless you are Danny Meyer at Union Square Café, you can’t just follow one policy.
Take for example a recent experience I had with my wife. For a night out we selected a well-known, upscale location in Yorkville. We started our reservation attempts with OpenTable, then the restaurant website and finally a call to the restaurant. Why? Only 5:30 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. was available for a Tuesday night, in early April. Even after speaking to the manager and telling him any time a bit later would be great, the policy was set and that was the best they could offer. Because we are interested in the food, still wanted to go so we booked.
We arrived at 5:30 to an empty restaurant. We did not need to ask about specials as we could listen to the pre-shift meeting by the Chef. Two hours, and several hundred dollars later, we were finished just as life started to fill the restaurant.
Why could we not have come at 6:30 or 7:00 and be part of the dinner vibe? Why just a flat policy?
I would love to think this is an isolated incident, however we know it is not. Spend time to teach and empower your team the art of working the door. Refresh and monitor your parameters on the number and size of reservations your automated system can take. Teach the teams answering the phone how to juggle the dining room, push some times and work a line up.
