Illustration: Daniel Zalkus
Shortly after chef Robbie Felice opened his Japanese-Italian juggernaut pastaRAMEN in Montclair last year, he started getting some weird feedback.
“People were emailing to tell me that tables were being sold online. Some guests would actually say, ‘I had to buy a reservation to eat here!’ I was flattered, but baffled,” says Felice.
Felice—whose pastaRAMEN and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood made New Jersey Monthly‘s list of top restaurants this year—was well aware that reservations at PastaRAMEN were flying off Resy mere seconds after they were posted. What he didn’t realize was that many reservations that appeared to be booked by legit diners were being snapped up and sold for a profit on a restaurant-reservations scalping site called Appointment Trader.
“New York is probably where this [phenomenon] began. But we’re hearing concerns from around the country,” says Mike Whatley, vice president of state affairs and grassroots advocacy for the National Restaurant Association.
Some who sell on Appointment Trader and platforms like it are would-be diners who opt to cash in on desirable tables they can’t use. But the lion’s share are in this game for the money.
A Brown University student interviewed by the New Yorker magazine, for instance, boasted that he earned $70,000 in 2023 scalping tables at the nation’s hottest restaurants when he wasn’t studying.
Using phony email addresses, fake names and, often, bogus or stolen credit card numbers when deposits are required, reservation scalpers like him log onto platforms like Resy, OpenTable and Yelp, call restaurants directly, and, increasingly, depend on sophisticated web-crawling bots to nab in-demand tables as soon as they become available. They then post them on scalping platforms, which take a percentage of their earnings.
“Some top-echelon restaurants have seen no-show rates spike from 10-15 percent to as much as 45 percent because many reservations obtained by scalpers don’t end up selling,” says Kevin Dugan, government affairs director for the New York State Restaurant Association.
The problem is serious enough that New York Governor Kathy Hochul is expected by year’s end to sign Restaurant Reservations Anti-Piracy Act, which will crack down on black-market sellers. New Jersey and other states may well follow suit. It’s not clear yet how widespread it is in the Garden State.
How, you might wonder, did we land here? “It’s a pandemic thing,” says Joe Guszkowski, senior editor at the trade publication Restaurant Business.
“Mostly in big cities, you have pent-up demand from all that time people weren’t going out. But you have less supply, since many restaurants closed during Covid, and a number of those that survived have cut back on hours. Then you have social-media influencers telling everyone what’s cool and where they need to eat. It’s created a perfect opportunity to sell reservations,” Guszkowski says.
Jonas Frey, the Miami-based entrepreneur behind Appointment Trader, insists his platform solves the scarcity problem for people willing to pay and widens access for mere mortals without inside connections.
His platform has delivered as promised for East Orange firefighter Phillip Reed, who tried for a year to score reservations at Kwame Onwuachi’s Caribbean-influenced restaurant Tatiana at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
“My girlfriend is really big on fine dining. I knew she wanted to go and didn’t want to disappoint her,” says Reed. “On Appointment Trader, I instantly got a table for $150, which was worth it for the goat patties alone. I just paid $135 for another table at Tatiana, and we’re going back tonight.”
Restaurateurs and industry leaders hold nothing against people like Reed.
“I’m honored people are willing to pay that money just to eat in my restaurant. It’s the platform I detest,” says restaurateur Ryan DePersio, whose Eatontown spot Ember & Eagle recently had a four-top posted on Appointment Trader for $148. (A reservation for four was available on Resy for the same time slot.)
None of this is to say that restaurants are against the concept of charging for a reservation. Coordinating with concierge services may, in fact, be the direction some will be going. But not having dining establishments in on the equation is bad for everyone but the scalpers, Dugan says.
Not only are black-market sellers making an already brutal fight for popular reservations worse, they break the link between diner and host.
“The hospitality business is about building relationships,” says Whatley, of the National Restaurant Association. When people come for a meal under false names, there’s no way for restaurants to keep track of who might be a regular, to note someone’s food allergies or how they like their coffee.
“Diners who pay hundreds of dollars for a third-party reservation also come in expecting more, even though the restaurant has nothing to do with their added expense,” Whatley says.
Reed, the firefighter, is all for building a rapport with restaurants. But, he says, the sacrifice is worth it for a chance to experience a meal—or two—at Tatiana.
That said, Reed hasn’t yet used a scalper on this side of the Hudson. “I would do it if my girlfriend, Samantha, expressed an interest. But for me? My favorite New Jersey restaurant is Del Porto in Elizabeth. You don’t need a reservation, their service is wonderful, and the Italian food is as good as Carbone’s. Give it a shot. Me and Samantha will meet you there.”
How to Get a Table, Scalp Free
There are plenty of great tables available every night in New Jersey. But if you’re angling for a harder-to-get reservation, try these strategies:
■ Join a wait list. Chef Robbie Felice says that his hotspot pastaRAMEN “books up quickly, but people cancel all the time. Getting off the wait list is pretty common.”
■ Pick up the phone. True, you’ll often get voicemail. But sometimes, you’ll be offered a table that isn’t listed on the reservations platforms.
■ Wait. “If I want to go to a popular spot on a Friday, I’ll check in on Thursday, since a lot of people hold onto a table until the last minute they can cancel without paying a cancellation fee. That’s usually 24 hours before,” says attorney Samantha Bollers, who loves fine dining.
■ Don’t underestimate the power of personal engagement. Introduce yourself to the chef. Talk to the manager and ask for their card. If you loved the meal, try making another reservation before you leave.
■ Become a regular. Almost all restaurants hold back some tables for walk-ins and for VIPs who message or make a call. If a restaurant sees you’re a loyal guest, you may get one of those tables or get bumped up on the wait list.
■ Consider getting a concierge credit card. Since American Express now owns Resy, its premium cards offer preferred access to certain restaurant reservations.
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