How I Got an Ungettable Restaurant Reservation
Let me preface this post by saying 1) use this approach to get a restaurant reservation sparingly and 2) be authentic!
I am going to start with the punch line to this post: think out of the box and find authentic ways to connect with restaurants and their teams! My story is just one example of how to do this.
I was headed to Santa Clara, California for a week for work and wanted to see what was new and fun to do in the area. As an alum of Santa Clara University, I at least knew which neighborhoods to look in: Santana Row, downtown San Jose, and certain pockets of Santa Clara. I started my search on Instagram and Google and came across the announcement that Oscar Farinetti’s Eataly, with a few locations in major U.S. cities, had opened its doors in Silicon Valley at Westfield Valley Fair mall on Stevens Creek Blvd. Its rooftop restaurant and lounge, Terra, only takes reservations one month in advance and it was booked solid.
My boss recommended we plan a team outing that week and didn’t know where to go. He had mentioned Eataly, but that “it’s impossible to get a reservation”. Challenge accepted. My immediate inclination was to find a way to get a reservation so that I could try it and also impress my team.
First, I reached out to the restaurant on Instagram via Direct Message (DM), explaining my situation - “Hi! I will be in town for 2 days in September (the 12th and 13th) and I am really hoping to impress my boss with a table for 5 people for our team outing. We’re flexible on time. Can you help me with a reservation at Terra?”, to which they responded fairly quickly, but they let me know there was no availability.
But, where there’s a will, there’s a way. So I asked myself how else I could find a way in…
I pivoted to LinkedIn, searched for the restaurant, clicked on “employees”, filtered by location, and selected one or two people to connect with. Upon “connecting”, I added a short, authentic note, again explaining that I was humbly pinging them for a huge favor to help me with a reservation. One of the contacts accepted my connection request and responded within 10 minutes. 15 minutes later, I had a reservation for 5 people and a confirmation text on my phone. I was beyond grateful and honestly a bit surprised.
The outing was an absolute hit, the experience and food were exceptional, and ultimately, I also highly recommend the restaurant!
