49 replies to this topic

[Wilfrid]

Many reports of bad service at Eater, but if Johnny's Reef can pull it off, this surely can't be rocket science.

What intrigues me is the reference to a two hour wait for tables. With similar reports from Mission Chinese and Pok Pok (not to mention the lines outside most -- not all -- Shake Shacks), I do wonder why we increasingly demand, and usually get, speed and convenience in all aspects of our lives except eating out.

Imagine if there was a two hour wait to post something on Facebook.

[mitchells]

Many reports of bad service at Eater, but if Johnny's Reef can pull it off, this surely can't be rocket science.

What intrigues me is the reference to a two hour wait for tables. With similar reports from Mission Chinese and Pok Pok (not to mention the lines outside most -- not all -- Shake Shacks), I do wonder why we increasingly demand, and usually get, speed and convenience in all aspects of our lives except eating out.

Imagine if there was a two hour wait to post something on Facebook.

The wait is part of the aura. Maybe these places are slow on purpose.

[Wilfrid]

Like Di Palo's, you think? Probably that's partially right, but we live in a world where people are very good at figuring out how to do quite complex things very fast.

Giving people tables in a restaurant isn't yet one of them.

[Lex]

I passed this place at the point the buildout was almost complete. The space is charmless - it looks like a giant multi level tacky theme park. Let me be the first to put it on deathwatch. Long waits, bad food, expensive.

Red Hook isn't the Meatpacking District. In fact, it's about as far from it as you can get.

[mitchells]

The DMV is a master at that. Years and years of people waiting on line.

[Stone]

What intrigues me is the reference to a two hour wait for tables. With similar reports from Mission Chinese and Pok Pok (not to mention the lines outside most -- not all -- Shake Shacks), I do wonder why we increasingly demand, and usually get, speed and convenience in all aspects of our lives except eating out.

I think some people have become convinced that if a restaurant's food isn't the be-all-end-all of the genre, it's not worth eating. Therefore, they'll wait a few hours for what they've be told is the best crab cake (pastrami sandwich, burger, slice of pizza, dumpling, bowl of soup) they'll ever have.

[Sneakeater]

I think you're right in general.

But THIS place, run by people whose other restaurant absolutely SUCKS? Where do people get the idea that it's going to be good?

[AaronS]

I wonder what the average diner's travel time is.

[Daisy]

I wonder what the average diner's travel time is.

Why do you think they have a shuttle bus from the Carroll Street station?

If someone has a car and wants to check it out, fine, Otherwise, wild horses....

[SethG]

I haven't been reading the buzz but I have been watching the space develop on my weekly trips to Fairway. I was kind of excited to take my family to an informal crab shack in the area. I guess I should have known better, nothing is easy in NYC.

[Wilfrid]

I am sure the waiting is because it's a crab shack in Brooklyn, rather than it's great food. I am just surprised, because we insist on cutting waiting out of everything else we do.

Vanishingly short attention spans - except when it comes to getting into restaurants. (Okay, or Harry Potter books.) Any sociologists out there?

[Orik]

I'm still amazed that nobody's offering a smartphone based queue management tool for non-reservation restaurants.

[Wilfrid]

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. Must be other solutions too.

I wonder if people are going to line up for two hours for Pok Pok in this heat? But I'm not planning to go find out.

[Steve R.]

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. Must be other solutions too.

I wonder if people are going to line up for two hours for Pok Pok in this heat? But I'm not planning to go find out.

Why not? There's a good chance that the heat has kept the lines down and you'd wind up winning and getting a nice seat outdoors in the back

[Orik]

Tomoe Sushi still has lines every day.