Schemes

Another Case of Reservation Scalping?

Two people, 8 p.m., Babbo — the holy grail?
Two people, 8 p.m., Babbo — the holy grail?

Well, this is peculiar: an industry friend points us to the Twitter feed of one Top Shelf Tickets & Tailgate, where the mostly sports-focused site is pimping certain desirable Thursday-night reservations. Quoth a tweet from earlier today: “reservations this thursday . 4pp colicchio and sons at 7:30 ..4 pp sons of essex at 7:30 . babbo 2 people @ 8pm .. babbo 4 people 9:15.” Now, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that Babbo rarely has Two for Eight, meaning these must already be in hand. So is this another case of reservation scalping, or what?

Sure enough, when we called to inquire, it seemed the tables were available for the taking (actually, there’s whole list of available tables online); but it doesn’t seem to be a case of scalping, since they’re being offered for free. In another tweet, Tickets & Tailgate indicated (to Sons of Essex, as it happens) that offering hot tables merely #promotesloyalty. Well, except to the restaurants, which must sometimes end up with no-shows. And are we alone in thinking it’s somehow wrong to traffic in something anybody with an OpenTable account could provide?

Another Case of Reservation Scalping?