What's Up With: Making You Wait to Wait at No Reservations Restaurants

Waiting at Rosemary's Wine Bar 

By James Mulcahy

We're not a fan of double waiting, as we described in a recent What's Up With rant - but that usually takes the form of getting called for your table and then being ushered to the bar because it's not really ready. Well, we encountered a new form of double waiting last night when we dropped by West Village hotspot Rosemary's. We love the joint's magical atmosphere and Italian grub, but witness the below (paraphrased) scene:

Us: How long is the wait?
Host: 30 Minutes
Us: Can we put our name down?
Host: Is your entire party here?
Us: They'll be here in 10 minutes.
Host: Well, you can't put your name on the wait list until your whole party is here.
Us: Ummmm.......


To summarize - we were not allowed to begin our wait for a table unless everyone was there to wait together. By the time the other member of our group arrived (which was in about 10 minutes, as promised) numerous people had added themselves to the list, and the wait was now 45 minutes.

We completely understand not being able to sit down until the whole party is there, or losing our spot in line because the missing guests haven't arrived, but when waits stretch well past a half hour, shouldn't one willing diner be able to establish a beachhead on the list? Or is that unfair to the other groups who showed up to whittle away the time as a full party? Let us know what you think in the comments.