Dining out as a competitive sport

Lately, I feel like I'm falling off the pace because getting into the latest, hottest, place is getting too hard. Consider:
1. Great Lakes Pizza: sure I want to try this stuff, but I can't wrap my head around the right "strategy" to use.
2. Next: I was one of the first people on the email list, but couldn't get a reservation in the first round, and now I don't even know how to get a reservation.
3. Aviary: Emailed once for the "lottery ticket" for a table but, alas, it wasn't my day.
4. El Ideas: I'm on this email list for cancellations, but if you don't resond within minutes, the gig is up.
5. Ruxbin: just reading about the lines forming before the doors open eliminates my appetite.

It used to be that anyone could go to the best places in town; you just had to reserve a few months in advance. And I don't mind off hours; we've always gone to Avec around 5:30. But fine dining has clearly reached a new level of popularity in Chicago. This is, on the whole, a good thing, even if it means there will be places I just can't muster the effort to figure out how to go. Makes me feel a bit old. I'll try to get my kids to go to these places and I'll vicariously feel hip and cool through them.

Jonah

I know what you mean and don't mean to minimize your point, which is well taken. But for what its worth, here are idea for three of those places that I have experience with:

Great Lake: Go early and avoid Friday and Saturday. Once you put your name down, go for a drink at any of the neighborhood spots. GL will call when your table is ready.

The Aviary: Perhaps I was lucky the one time I emailed for reservations, but I'd keep trying. I don't know if you can put your name down and then head to, say, The Publican, while you wait.

Next: My understanding is that it isn't that hard to buy tickets on Facebook or Craigslist. I've sold and know many people who have sold tickets.

Jonah wrote:It used to be that anyone could go to the best places in town; you just had to reserve a few months in advance.

It's still pretty easy to make reservations at most places, and only a few - Alinea, Topolobampo, Girl and the Goat - fill up months in advance. If you want to stick to only restaurants that accept reservations, you won't be ruling out many finer dining places; the categories where you may have trouble include "cheap eats" (including pizza, hot dog/encased meats, etc) and breakfast places.

The Tribune recently did a guide to the most crowded places in town (most of which are among the minority that don't accept reservations), with info about when to go to avoid the longest waits:

Chicago's always-crowded spots: When to go?

Regarding Aviary, I don't think it's that hard to get in. They make a big deal out of reservations and what not, but I haven't really heard about people having trouble getting a table by just showing up (of course, YMMV). I've expressed my views on Next before...if you really want to go, you can probably find a way to make it happen if you don't get tickets in the initial sale.

I agree that the whole thing is getting very tiresome. But always remember there are plenty of really good restaurants in this town that you can get in to with little or no trouble (or just by going old school and making a reservation a couple of months out). For the others, life is just too short to stress out about getting into a restaurant. If the place is good, hopefully it will stay open long enough for you to eventually get in. If it stinks, it will close and you'll be glad you avoided the hassle anyway.

jesteinf wrote:there are plenty of really good restaurants in this town that you can get in to with little or no trouble (or just by going old school and making a reservation a couple of months out).

Yup.

Another, related point is that the newest, hottest places are only a small slice of our restaurant scene. There are many excellent restaurants in all categories which have been around for several years (some for many years). And if YOU have never been to a restaurant, it's still new TO YOU. There may be a handful of people here who have been to so many Chicago restaurants that there aren't any they still want to try, but if so they are very, very few of us. I bet most of us are like me. I keep a list (an actual list, although there are probably others who do so mentally) of restaurants I've never been to and want to try. That list never gets shorter, because the number of new places I hear about adds places to the list faster than I can take places off by trying them. And of course the other dilemma is choosing between new places vs places I've tried and enjoyed.

When you think about it, though, all this means is that there are always many, many places in Chicago to choose from. In that respect, we are fortunate to live in one of the greatest food cities anywhere.

nsxtasy wrote:And of course the other dilemma is choosing between new places vs places I've tried and enjoyed.

Amen to this.

I'm always torn between my desire to become a regular at a place I love, and my desire to try all the new & interesting places I hear/read about through LTH, Twitter, trying-too-hard-to-be-hip magazines & blog posts, etc. Now that my going out to eat opportunities are severely limited (because having to get a babysitter instantly adds $50-60 to the cost of our evening), new hotness versus tried-and-true has become even more of a dilemma.