A look at the restaurant reservation ecosystem in New York City, where new apps have sprung up to help diners book a table at buzzy restaurants for a price
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out. Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social . X: @theattack5 , @blackbird_xyz , @matthewichoi , @guyfierisuprfan , @danielgothits , @davidiola_ , @ndubuc , @mjnblack , @krzysztof_lysy , @tomgara , @armanddoma , @divers1tyhire , @iscoe , @henry_roberts6 , @raihan_ , @willystaley , @alexludoboyd , @outonanisland , @piouslymash , @gertsofficial , @tanayj , @batman_in_samt , @bigseb31213 , @pourteaux , @iscoe , and @moorehn Forums: Hacker News and r/technology Mastodon: Dan Gillmor / @dangillmor@mastodon.social : The restaurant reservations system sucks, and you already know why, but here are the details: https://www.newyorker.com/... X: @theattack5 : https://www.newyorker.com/... Leventhal said, frowning: “Not everything should be purchasable—which makes people's heads explode.” @blackbird_xyz : Our Founder and CEO, @benleventhal, sat down with @NewYorker to discuss the state of restaurant reservations in New York, why they're so hard to come by, how it affects restaurants and diners alike, and what Blackbird is doing about it. https://www.newyorker.com/... Matthew Choi / @matthewichoi : “we now have a customer who fundamentally believes there's a price for everything,” Leventhal said frowning. “Not everything should be purchasable—which makes people's heads explode. You can't call up Polo Bar and say, ‘How much will it cost to get in?’ ” https://www.newyorker.com/... Alexandra Hildreth / @guyfierisuprfan : Not to be dramatic or repetitive but I fully believe resy is ruining New York https://www.newyorker.com/... @danielgothits : NFTs would legit be perfect for this David Iola / @davidiola_ : for those curious as to why you can't get your precious IG story at 4 charles prime rib on a friday night (surprise: it's all about incentives) https://www.newyorker.com/... Nick Dubuc / @ndubuc : Everything can be sold these days. I hate it. https://www.newyorker.com/... Julia Black / @mjnblack : This is a great, big-picture feature about how more and more of the Good Things in Life are getting moved behind a velvet rope. Also, it includes some really fun BTS details about what fancy restaurant hostesses are saying about you. https://www.newyorker.com/... [image] Krzysztof Lysy / @krzysztof_lysy : And the context for all my time on Resy. Trying to make it into a $80k/year side gig https://www.newyorker.com/... Tom Gara / @tomgara : Unbelievably grim article about NYC restaurant reservation scalpers - people are paying a thousand bucks to buy a Carbone reservation on the secondary market. https://www.newyorker.com/... [image] Armand Domalewski / @armanddoma : quitting my job to open a high frequency restaurant reservation trading hedge fund [image] Nancy Drew / @divers1tyhire : I've been saying how impossible it is to get a table anywhere nowadays and feel so validated by this 😭 https://www.newyorker.com/... Adam Iscoe / @iscoe : it's true! often online re-sellers and members-only apps are posting tables that you can just book via Resy or OpenTable—or get by calling the restaurant, the old fashioned way. for those of y'all who haven't yet read the full article, check it out here: https://www.newyorker.com/... Henry Roberts / @henry_roberts6 : This article is wild. Though New York is probably at another level, restaurant eating in London (for me at least) feels like a big generational thing. I don't eat out nearly as much as I'd like because £££ Why You Can't Get a Restaurant Reservation https://www.newyorker.com/... Raihan / @raihan_ : Using site as intended: hot take about article. Reservation bloodbaths are corny AND we should normalize dining solo at the bar <3 https://www.newyorker.com/... Willy / @willystaley : Good lord. This city is so cashed. https://www.newyorker.com/... Alexander Boyd / @alexludoboyd : this is almost exactly like “Moutai Hypebeasts,” as I like to call them. The kids who build bots to snatch up Moutai at auction for resale on the booming secondary market https://www.newyorker.com/... David V / @outonanisland : Maybe it's because I've never had the actual or aspirational level of status where I needed a hard-to-get NYC reservation, but the EBay- and TaskRabbit-ification of it all just seems way more corny than it's worth. It's just a restaurant reservation. https://www.newyorker.com/... @piouslymash : Last year, he made more than a thousand reservations at the city's trendiest restaurants; he claims to have cozied up to the owners and managers, who set aside tables for him. In reality, he has used Appointment Trader, just like everyone else. https://www.newyorker.com/... Greta Rainbow / @gertsofficial : “Your Resy, OpenTable, and SevenRooms profiles follow you around town, like Uber reviews, or chlamydia.” https://www.newyorker.com/... Tanay Jaipuria / @tanayj : People are making $70-80K per year selling restaurant reservations in NYC on the secondary market 😯 [image] Pratheek Burkhard / @batman_in_samt : Many people are struggling to secure restaurant reservations due to high demand and limited capacity as dining establishments continue to operate under pandemic-related restrictions. #restaurant #reservations #pandemic https://www.newyorker.com/... @bigseb31213 : absolutely insane article, apparently there is an entire ecosystem of people who buy and sell reservations for popular restraunts. article obviously focuses on nyc but it's in philly too! https://www.newyorker.com/... @pourteaux : Social credit for nyc restaurant reservations is in full swing https://t.co/... [image] Adam Iscoe / @iscoe : one thing I learned while reporting on the strange world of restaurant reservations for @NewYorker: many buzzy restaurants are watching you, taking notes, and using that info to decide how they should treat you the next time around. read more: https://www.newyorker.com/... [image] Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn : We need a thinkpiece on how post-pandemic New York nightlife is mostly rich tourists trying to impress their suburban neighbors and willing to pay a premium for it Forums: Hacker News : Why you can't get a restaurant reservation r/technology : Why You Can't Get a Restaurant Reservation - How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
Context & Ripple Effects
New York’s reservation fight extends a broader shift from access to experiences toward tradable inventory: prior coverage examined how Airbnb sought to personalize and commoditize food experiences, while hotel startups explored tradable booking rights through NFT-linked stays.
The important distinction is that restaurant platforms also retain diner histories. As paid intermediaries and resellers compete for scarce tables, access and reputation data become intertwined rather than separate parts of the dining market.
First-order effects
- Diners willing to pay gain another route to high-demand tables, while diners relying on standard release windows face a market shaped by bots, resellers, and paid booking services.
- Restaurants and reservation platforms must manage the immediate trade-off between filling sought-after seats, protecting direct customer access, and responding to reservations acquired for resale.
Second-order effects
- Reservation history becomes more commercially consequential: because restaurants monitor past behavior, platform-held profiles can affect repeat customers’ treatment as well as their ability to book.
- Operators such as Blackbird can position themselves around a less commoditized access model, while resale platforms and conventional booking services face pressure to show how they deter or accommodate secondary trading.
Third-order effects
- If paid resale persists, scarce reservations may increasingly function like transferable access rights, moving restaurant discovery toward a tiered market rather than a simple first-come booking system.
- The pattern could make control of booking rules and customer data a central competitive lever for restaurants and platforms, though the article does not establish how broadly venues will accept that model.
The trend: Scarce offline experiences are being converted into digitally managed, resellable access—creating secondary markets around inventory that was once allocated by ordinary booking systems.