How to get into the Hottest Restaurants in Town

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2000/10/pocketful

by antiform • 18 years ago

117 41 18 years ago

gourmet.com

waynep• 18 years ago

Money talks.... nothing new :)

rudyfink• 18 years ago

Exactly, cash is king.

jcromartie• 18 years ago

I'd rather get into the best restaurants.

evilneanderthal• 18 years ago

Haha -

"Would you turn on the A/C? Tonight is a very important for me..."

konsl• 18 years ago

eh? Daniel and Le Bernardin are pretty damn good -- both have more than one michelin star

agotterer• 18 years ago

He should have gone to Babbo as well. That place is fantastic!

karzeem• 18 years ago

They'd certainly be on most people's list of the top five restaurants in NYC.

I'd be interested to see if it would work at the Waverly Inn, whose hype is based more than anything else, and more than any other restaurant in the city, around its exclusivity. They try very hard to cultivate an aura of unattainability (e.g. no phone reservations—only walk-ins or people who reserve through personal connections).

After reading this piece, though, it seems the better question is where wouldn't it work.

Alex3917• 18 years ago

Agreed, I have yet to go to a trendy restaurant that actually has good food. Strictly speaking it's not impossible that a trendy restaurant would be good, but in practice the kinds of people who spend millions of dollars hiring an interior decorator aren't the kind of people who wake up at 4am every day to drive an hour to the fish market.

vaksel• 18 years ago

just make a fake press pass and tell them you want to review them for your newspaper.

opal• 18 years ago

I'm still stuck on the get hot girl to accompany me step. I hear that's where the expense lies.

fallentimes2• 18 years ago

If it doesn't help, at least you'll be entertained:

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Penetrating-Secret-Society-Artist...

pkaler• 18 years ago

Please, no. That is a well-written book for the most part, but don't take the antics as actual advice.

gruseom• 18 years ago

I was at a workshop a couple of years ago where an attendee happened to be (I found out later) one of the pick-up artists from this book. Thinking about him still gives me the creeps.

neilc• 18 years ago

Wow, I'm jealous. I think the real question is how you can get a job writing about your experience bribing maître d's and eating free meals at some of the best restaurants in New York.

litewulf• 18 years ago

For one... the meals weren't free. I'm sure he was tipping generously those nights though.

The one thing that really strikes me is I wonder if this bribing is relatively rare, and the novelty is what made it work.

baha_man• 18 years ago

"I did have an incentive: I could eat at any place I could successfully finagle my way into."

It's not clear, but I took this to mean that his meal (if not the tip/bribe) was paid for on expenses.

jkent• 18 years ago

Usually for food writers/reviewers they can expense everything. Almost always +1 too. Having a restaurant journalist friend is great.

They don't tell the restaurant they are reviewing it until after paying for the meal if at all - only to see the kitchens and such. Exceptions of course for new trendy restaurants - they sometimes have press nights.

drusenko• 18 years ago

From my experience in new york, you can get into almost any "hot" or sought after club with the same tactics -- ones that have 200 people lines at midnight. Bypassing a 200 person line is pretty exhilarating.

He seems to wrap it up well in his tips -- the most important is that it seems natural, that you dress well and seem meant to be there, and not be awkward about the tip.

Walking straight up to the bouncer at the front of a line, asking to get in, and (after you are denied and told to get to the back of the line) saying "Isn't there some way we can work this out?" while slipping him a twenty works every time.

andyking• 18 years ago

This article is as alien to me as a newspaper written in Greenlandic. Perhaps it's something to do with spending too much of my life in Stoke-on-Trent, one of the less salubrious corners of England. It just seems to be taking the bland consumerism that has taken over life in most cities to a new extreme.

iigs• 18 years ago

Thanks for posting this, I found it really interesting.

As a 20-something geek I was surprised to read how virtually every place accepted the bribe in one way or another. It really contradicts my low confidence + true/false mentality.

His attitude appears to have been the magic for making those deals... had he been holding the money timidly he implies they certainly would have turned him away. I will take away from the article the reminder that more self confidence (to a point) reaps benefits in ways I wouldn't always expect.

amrithk• 18 years ago

Agree with you. Interesting to see what a little self-confidence thus even if you don't feel great inside.

baltoo• 18 years ago

I firm outside can hide oceans of internal insecurity.

This is so true and such a cliché that we often suspect people with too firm outsides to do just that.

bootload• 18 years ago

"... As a 20-something geek I was surprised to read how virtually every place accepted the bribe in one way or another. It really contradicts my low confidence + true/false mentality ..."

The downside of this approach is the associated psychology. If you give out bribes there is possibility bribery can also be used against you. So be careful how you deal with this kind of activity. Don't be surprised if the people you bribe try it back on yourself.

rglovejoy• 18 years ago

I am sure we will be seeing less of this, as the world of high finance falls on hard times.

iron_ball• 18 years ago

Or more of it, as the titans (and affiliated hecatoncheires etc) of finance quit being able to out-tip those of us with still-marketable skills.

NonEUCitizen• 18 years ago

this is a forum for engineering, not marketing.

danielh2• 18 years ago

It's called Hacker News. Didn't he hack his way into the restaurants?

andyn• 18 years ago

It was an entertaining article, granted, but I disagree that greasing palms to get a table at a restaurant is a hack.

Maybe I'm just bitter at the overuse of the word nowadays.

"Dude! I totally hacked that cereal into my mouth with a spoon!"

steveplace• 18 years ago

Social engineering?

msie• 18 years ago

I think many HN readers dream of getting rich and dining at the best NY restaurants.

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

I've always done the whole "If you could squeeze me in, I'd be VERY grateful" bit, followed by a tip later. The meaning is implied so clearly that it might as well have been stated explicitly, plus the host doesn't risk losing his job. Works like a charm.

run4yourlives• 18 years ago

one part Decline of the Roman Empire

That line pretty much sums up the idea of "trendy restaurants".

If you want a good night out, avoid this shit and find an old money haunt: better food, better service, and better diners. No, you won't see any celebrities (another plus).

bigthboy• 18 years ago

I liked the article and found it extremely interesting how easy it was for him to circumvent the lines and policies of these places and get service that could in many ways be considered "above the rest."

However, in the mind of an entrepreneur I have to say that it seems as generally a waste of money to do such things, at least on a regular basis. Even if you had the money to do it, it would be extremely unwise. This would be the kind of thing you do and the kind of restaraunts you should eat at when it IS a special occassion... not because you're hungry.

eru• 18 years ago

There may be a need to create impressions in some lines of business.

How to get into the Hottest Restaurants in Town

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