Click for reservations
March 3, 2006
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For the diner who is even the slightest bit neurotic, leaving a reservation on a restaurant’s voicemail feels, well, incomplete. It leaves important questions unanswered. Is there a table available? They say they’ll call to confirm, but when? Will my message be scribbled on a Post-it and lost on a cluttered host stand?
Often these voicemails are left during non-restaurant hours, when the message is doomed to wallow in packed voicemail boxes.
To rescue us from dinner plans gone awry is OpenTable, a free online restaurant reservation system. Diners can visit www.opentable.com, seek out the restaurant they want to visit and make an instant reservation, which is followed up by a confirmation e-mail.
The service has been available in larger cities since 1998 and has seated about 18 million customers to date. It began to establish itself in the Twin Cities market early last year.
“The number one reason people use Open Table is convenience,” said Ann Shepherd, senior director of consumer marketing. “Nobody has enough time. We find that 30 percent of people that use the service book during hours when restaurants are closed,” she said. “Now they can go online and do this when it’s convenient for them.”
Customers aren’t the only ones appeased, local restaurants also seem to like the results. “I absolutely love it,” said Berta Herman, a hostess at Mission American Kitchen, 77 S. 7th St. “I can’t imagine life without it. I’ve noticed that it’s just increased, slowly, and more and more web reservations have come in.”
Julie Steenerson, co-owner of Sapor, 428 Washington Ave. N., said Open Table has drawn more of her customers than she thought it would. “It now manages the bulk of our reservations. Some of our customers say it’s the only way they make reservations,” she said.
As a convenience to customers, each reservation contains an area for special requests, so you can alert the staff about food allergies or request a chilled bottle of champagne to await your party.
Travelers can also derive much benefit from Open Table. Those wishing to visit well-known upscale restaurants, like Topolobompo of Chicago, or New York City’s Gramercy Tavern, can make a reservation without ever having to pick up the phone. They can also poke around to find the best time available during their visit.
Even a coveted table at Napa Valley’s French Laundry can be had by the quickest and nimblest of Open Table users, if they manage to snatch one of the few tables it makes available through Open Table. For major cities that are multiple time zones away, like Hong Kong, London, Montreal or Puerto Rico, reservations can be sought during our daylight hours, minus any language barrier.
If you don’t find the desired reservation at Open Table; however, it still pays to call restaurants directly. Mission, for example, does not offer lunch reservations through OpenTable.
Besides, there are some things that can’t be accomplished online, like pleading with the host to see if one teensy weensy party of two can be squeezed in at 7:30 p.m. tonight, if you promise to be done in an hour.
Human interaction may also allow you to get a better feel for that restaurant’s atmosphere. “Sometimes the information that I can offer over the phone is better for the customer that wants more detail about the menu or the ambience,” said Steenerson. “But [Open Table] has the bulk of information that the average customer needs to know.”
Reservations via OpenTable can be made at the following Downtown restaurants: 20 21, Auriga, Babalu, Bellanotte, Caf/ Havana, Caf/ Lurcat, Capital Grille, Cosmos, D’Amico Cucina, Firelake Grill House, Fugaise, Joe’s Garage, La Belle Vie, Manny’s, Masa, Mission, Morton’s, Murray’s, Nicollet Island Inn, Nochee, Oceanaire, Oddfellows, Origami, Palomino, Rossi’s, Ruth’s Chris, Sapor, Solera, The Melting Pot, Tibur—n, Trocaderos and Vincent.
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