As if a $20 burger, an Eater Facebook page and Oxford's word of the year weren't sufficient to make this Monday morning odd enough, we now would like to introduce TablePronto. We suppose it was only a matter of time before the slightly-fascinating, somewhat-sleazy and wholly-confusing pastime of online reservation scalping hit San Francisco.
So apparently, the gist of the website is that people can buy and sell prime time reservations at the local restaurants. In other words, it's no more legitimate that that guy hawking tickets in the Candlestick parking lot before a 49ers game. Currently, there are only 12 restaurant reservations available, and they range from $7 to $18. Some of the notable restaurants (and their price tags) on the preliminary list:
Perbacco, 11/16, 9pm, $18Restaurants can't be happy that reservations are now available to be scalped online, as we imagine that can only increase the amount of no-shows. Plus—Spruce aside (for the next month)—is it really that hard to get reservations in San Francisco? Above all else, there's the moral factor: wouldn't it feel a bit questionable/uncomfortable to actually partake in this exercise? TablePronto itself says diners shouldn't say where they get the resy: "We advocate not discussing TablePronto to the restaurant under all/any circumstances as your enjoyment of the service is our highest goal." In other words, it's a bit like buying Rolexes in Union Square: sure they look good and do the job, but do you really want to know from whence it came?
Foreign Cinema, 11/16, 8:30pm, $15
Town Hall, 11/16, 9:15pm, $10
Aqua, 11/16, 8:45pm, $10
The funny part? Each of the first four reservation offerings (above) are also available on OpenTable, cost-free and guilt-free. Do as you wish, San Francisco.
· TablePronto [Official Site]
· OpenTable [Official Site]
Your reactions to reservation scalping in the comments field.
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