Restaurants aren’t the only tasteful tickets in town, either. Even stalwarts like New York’s Eleven Madison Park and Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry moved to prepaid reservations. chef Jordan Kahn’s daring Vespertine in Culver City are skipping over reservations completely and going the prepaid route. Newcomers like Washington D.C.’s The Shaw Bijou from “Top Chef” competitor Kwame Onwuachi and L.A. “When demand outstrips supply at a restaurant or a restaurant is very small, then offering a prepaid option helps streamline operations and improve hospitality,” he says.ĭozens of buzzed-about eateries have jumped on the ticket train - from Barcelona’s highly experimental, theatrical Enigma (which requires a secret code to get in) to unique operations like Lume in Melbourne, Australia, and Portland’s Farm Spirit (which has only 16 seats). Ticketing also allows the restaurant to deliver consistency each night, and often to a small number of diners. Nick Kokonas, the Chicago-based co-founder of Alinea and Next, and the founder of Tock - the online restaurant ticketing system - sees it another way. For diners, the ticket phenomenon means they must pay up front, but it also encourages them to carve out time on their calendars and requires them to be present for the experience, “which is a huge shift from our screen-guided, Facebook event-maybe-marked way of living,” says Inamine. For restaurants, it means fewer last-minute cancellations. It’s only natural that they would want to exert more control over the experience they offer their patrons, too. Inamine notes that chefs are investing in all facets of the restaurant, from sourcing specific ingredients to building more elaborate spaces and designing staff uniforms.
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