The VinePair Podcast: Reservations Are Hurting Bars

We’re in the age when the line between bar and restaurant is increasingly blurred. Not only do bars now offer stellar food programs and table service — they’re requiring reservations. The reservation climate of the 2020s has been nothing but volatile. Hopefuls wake up early in the morning to refresh Resy, OpenTable, and the like for a chance at snagging a seat and regularly end up disappointed.

Tough-to-get reservations are nothing new. What’s unique to the present, however, is that they are now widespread. The toxic reservation climate is likely a result of Covid-19 when hospitality businesses relied on the predictability of bookings to ensure their seats would be filled. Before Covid-19, the number of bars requiring reservations was quite slim, but now that we’re well out of the pandemic, many haven’t returned to the way things operated previously. Why?

Today on the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam and Joanna dive into how the increasing number of reservation-only bars is hurting the industry. How is it that reservation platforms and the credit card companies that back them have entirely upended the way bars have always operated in just a few years?

Joanna is reading: Malört Was Made for the Shot. Bartenders Are Changing That.
Adam is reading: It’s Been 50 Years Since the Judgement of Paris — It’s Time to Move On.

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