Is It Easier for Celebrities to Get Dinner Reservations? Of Course!
My friend Ramblings & Gamblings sent me a link yesterday to this story by Deadspin.com: “Are New York’s Most Exclusive Restaurants More Eager To Seat Jeremy Lin Or Eli Manning?”
The site called eighteen of NYC’s most notoriously unbookable restaurants–Per Se, Babbo, and Minetta Tavern, to name a few–posing as assistants to sports stars Eli Manning and Jeremy Lin to see who could get a last-minute reservation where. The results are unsurprising but saddening to those of us who will never be celebrities. Deadspin writes:
Final tally: Manning had only two flat rejections, while Lin had four. Of the restaurants that offered to seat Manning at another time, only one, Per Se, bumped him from his 8 p.m. request by more than a half-hour. Lin got a better offer than Manning once: at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Linsanité!
The only redeeming news is that neither of them could get a reservation at Brooklyn Fare. Deadspin says, “Brooklyn Fare, in a tone suggesting we’re stupid for even asking: ‘We take reservations weeks in advance.'” God bless you, Brooklyn Fare, even if you answered in the same tone when I called and said I would only take a reservation on a Saturday night.
5 Comments
Rodzilla
That makes me really like Brooklyn Fare
donuts4dinner
Me, too! I wrote myself a calendar reminder to be on the phone at 10:30 next Monday so I can finally get that reservation. Even though it’s going to mean no photos and no notes. Grr!
Mrs. Bachelor Girl
This irks me for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m so fucking sick of the Mannings I could just die.
Timmy Lee
My wife and I had dinner at Chef’s Table on Valentine’s Day. OMG! Do we dare say that the food was better than Per Se?
donuts4dinner
Ooooooooooh. Intriguing. We JUST got our Brooklyn Fare reservation this morning, so this is a very timely comment and now has me looking forward to the place even more. (Despite the promise of many, many shellfish courses.)