I've meant to post this awhile ago when it happened. Anyway next weekend I am taking my wife to NYC for her birthday. Opera one night, whatever art museums she would like, and much fine dining. I tried for Per Se, no luck. I spent a half hour on hold listening to a recording telling me to be patient. I was as patient as I could be but since you must call two months prior at 10AM which turned out to be a day I was at work, I needed to get back to work. Next I tried Babbo (she really wanted to try it) which requires a call at 10AM one month in advance. This was far worse. For an hour sraight I kept hitting redial and kept getting a busy signal. At least at Per Se you think somebody may at some point take your call. Now I am well aware that these are both very small and very popular restaurants and you are going to be very lucky to secure a reservation at either one. But there has to be a better, or at least less frustrating way to get a reservation. I certainly would have understood if they had a recording saying something along the lines of "we took your call at 10AM and 6 seconds therefore you are out of luck, try again 5 seconds earlier tomorrow." Let me know if I am wasting my time, or at least get a second phone line that puts you on hold. To think in a one hour time frame in which I must have called Babbo well over 100 times that I never once got through in all that time is hard to believe. Sorry for my long winded rant but it was so annoying to go through this. THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY. Oh wait, there is, I went on Open Table and secured reservations at Del Posto and Le Bernardin, so it's all good. Though I still feel Keller and Batali should both retool their policies.
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