Five Toughest Reservations in America

Table for two? Good luck. New York Magazine's blog Grub Street has identified the five toughest dinner reservations in the country, and the three tricky reservation systems that make grabbing a seat at one of these places so difficult. The three types of reservations are The Rolling Reservation (in which tables open up on a daily basis but are only for a set number of days in the future); The Lottery Reservation (in which diners are asked to make a phone or email request to the restaurant, though they likely will never hear back from a reservationist); and The Phantom System (in which no reservation system actually exists, and the phone just rings and rings). "From the unimaginable to the merely impossible," the restaurants are: Rao's in New York; Momofuku Ko in New York; Talula's Table in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania; French Laundry in Yountville, California; and Schwa in Chicago. Honorable mentions to Minibar in D.C., Waverly Inn in N.Y., Alinea in Chicago, and Per Se in N.Y.