If you’d rather stay off the reservation sites, try calling: Era restaurants like Yakitori Totto near Carnegie Hall, sometimes take last minute reservations over the phone. Or you have to join every obsessive restaurant I know to eat out at 6pm. Sure, it will be on the quiet side when you first sit down, but not for long.
“I like to eat early because you get more attention from the servers,” said Christine Yi, the content creator and influencer behind @cy_eats. “More attention is paid to preparing the food and you can transition into the time when the restaurant gets lively.”
Or check out restaurants that skip reservation sites altogether! For example, Department of Culturethe Nigerian tasting menu restaurant in Bed-Stuy, as well as Second place in Park Slope, who keep it low on Mondays, both are incredibly responsive via email, even if you don’t work for a 170-year-old newspaper.
If you just can’t resist that piping hot reservation, think of Via Carota in the West Village – you should always choose the nearby bar where you are going to hang out in case you have to wait – Bar Pisellino† Employees only or blind tiger — or point to your nearby Plan B restaurant — B’artusi or NL Japanese Brasserie† And your chances are increased a thousandfold if it’s a holiday weekend, such as Memorial Day or Fourth of July. How else could I get in? Lady last year in Greenwich Village?
Ultimately, it’s best to walk through your own backyard. Those menus are posted in the window for a reason: Your local small business owner wants you to come in, relax, enjoy a meal. BECOME A REGULAR. Think of that as a permanent reservation.
In other news…
In response to one of last week’s questions about delicious salads, some readers sent in their own recommendations! Diana B. said that since moving to Florida, her “most missed dish” is the Gotham Salad at Bergdorf Goodman’s BG Restaurant† (Good news: Town & Country obtained the recipe in 2013.) And Andrew G. said, “In my honest opinion, no list of top NYC salads is complete without Il Bucos cavolonero,” with Tuscan black kale and garlic-anchovy-lemon vinaigrette. Keep those comments coming at wheretoeat., and see you next week!
“Nonna” may have been reduced to a code word for good home cooking, but not to Nonna Dora’s Pasta Bar in Kips Bay. The branding — and the 20 pastas made each day by 86-year-old Addolorata Marzovilla — are authentic, writes Pete Wells in his latest review.
Openings: all tables, a Southern California chain that sells affordable convenience foods based on a neighborhood’s average income, opens Monday in Chelsea and East Village; the music theme Vinyl Steakhouse is now open in the Flatiron district; and Gugu Room intersects Filipino cuisine with izakaya-style dining on the Lower East Side.
Bee Les Trois Chevaux dress codes are back in the West Village and other high-end restaurants in the United States, reports Priya Krishna.
Grace Young, a longtime champion for preserving Chinatowns and Chinese cuisinewill be honored with the Julia Child Award.
The piano bar is backand Julia Carmel, the nightlife reporter for The Times, interviewed the pianists who will benefit from his return.
The restaurant group behind Carbon open a New York branch for their members only in Miami ZZ’s Club at Hudson Yards.
Email us at wheretoeat.† Newsletters are archived here† Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram† facebook† YouTube and Pinterest†
