WTF, NYC?
A bouncer at the door!? And a Wednesday evening!! Is Keith McNally, Minetta Tavern‘s owner, afraid that angry NYU students are going to storm his new restaurant and rob his fancy patrons?
“No, sir! Only reservations.
- But I have a reservation.
- Please, come in.”
I was a few minutes early for my 10 PM dinner -the only and earliest time available, except 5 PM, when I booked more than three weeks in advance- and I had brought a book to wait at our table. When I entered the restaurant, my literary pre-dinner kind of fell apart. The bar was packed and I was wondering whether there would be any space for my friend, just to stand, when he arrived. At 10.15, the crowd waiting to be seated was still dense and I asked the hostess if we had some chance to have dinner before midnight. She explained to me that 10.15 was the new 9.30 and that all the people at the bar were 9.30 clients. It didn’t really make me smile and I followed my number one rule when things start to go wrong in a restaurant -I also use it when I fly but it’s less efficient-: “Always complain. Always bargain. Always obtain”. Three minutes later, my friend and I were kindly offered a glass of champagne to ease the pain.
While we were kind of enjoying our bubbly drink, more and more people came in (10.30 guests?) and I had more the impression to be in Tokyo’s subway during peak time than in a restaurant in Manhattan. Apparently, they’re using the same yield management software as the airlines that tried to ship back their clients when the Icelandic ash cloud decided to dissolve itself. Finally, this bouncer was not such a bad idea. I wondered at that stage if there would be enough air for one more person.
10 minutes later, a waitress fended the crowd and showed us our table. It nearly made me feel like a VIP. Did the guys who shot the most get their first table? Or were those standing people even less famous than we are? I doubt it…
Seeing Anne Hathaway with a party of six gave me a hint of what might have happened; being quite sure that charming Anne didn’t call three weeks before the due day and wasn’t therefore asked to give another call on Monday in order to confirm that she would, of course, come with her friends. There were other famous people in the room or that, at least, looked famous.
I always have been surprised by the level of discomfort that new yorkers are ready to experience, just to have the opportunity to brag the following days. They’re ready to wait for hours in packed, busy, and noisy environment, just to have the opportunity to check in where their friends haven’t checked yet. Maybe, it’s one of the only moments when there is a sense of equality in a city where money can buy nearly everything. But as long as people won’t be paid to wait in line for you, you’ll have to stand at the bar -as if you were going downtown at 8 am on a weekday in the 6 train- and wait for your table to be ready.
And the food? Who really cares? I’m not sure that New Yorkers go to Keith McNally’s restaurants for the food. They know it’s unsurprisingly and consistently good. They go there for the feeling, the atmosphere, the crowd. And the excellent service, efficient, respectful. McNally’s employees don’t treat you like kids by filling up your glass after every sip and allows you to eat at normal pace, not as if you were about to miss your train. Balthazar‘s enduring success is a bit of a mystery to me even if it’s not undeserved. Balthazar has been a hot spot since 1997. You can find it in every guide about New York but you don’t feel in a tourist trap at all.
That day, at Minetta, I had a fresh and uneventful salade du jour and a well-cooked Grilled dorade. I can’t complain. It was good, neat, and nearly worth the wait.
