Carbone is an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village that serves $47 linguine vongole to guests like Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna. It's not a place where mere mortals get same-day dinner reservations.
However, on Wednesday afternoon there were two prime time seats available on the Resy app for that same night. There were also tables available at Eleven Madison Park, Tatiana, and Don Angie, all restaurants that tend to inspire a virtual gladiatorial competition for reservations.
The trick? Every last bite of crispy okra or buffalo milk caramel would conflict with Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
New York City has been electrified by the Knicks' championship series against the San Antonio Spurs, a historic streak that continued Wednesday night with a stunning comeback in the final minutes of the game. And while thousands of fans host parties to watch Jalen Brunson hit 3-pointers, other New Yorkers are competing for some of the most competitive tables in the city.
Available seats at 4 Charles Prime Rib, Wild Cherry and other locations appear to be selling out more slowly than usual, said Tarek Arafat, chief executive of TableOne, a reservation alert service. And last-minute cancellations had increased at tables between the hours of 8 and 10 p.m., also known as game time.
“Traditionally, these reserves would disappear almost immediately,” Arafat said.
Although overall reservations for NBA Finals game days increased in New York over last year, reservations at the city's most award-winning restaurants (those with Michelin stars or James Beard awards, for example) have not seen the same increase, according to the OpenTable platform.
It's not just about good food. On Friday, Bianca Salcedo, a 25-year-old who lives in Brooklyn, was surprised to see that the line of people waiting to buy ice cream at Caffè Panna in Greenpoint was only a couple long. It usually goes around the block.
He ordered mango-flavored sticky rice and then watched the Knicks win Game 2 at a nearby bar. “I kind of scored twice,” he said.
During Game 4, we visited several of the city's most sought-after restaurants and found that diners were luckier than usual in getting a table.
6:47 p.m.
Sema
At Semma's restaurant in South India, just under two hours before kickoff, Mia Seymour was standing behind a velvet rope that didn't seem necessary. “We almost didn't come tonight because of the game; it was close,” said Seymour, 25, an investment banker who was having dinner with his coworkers. He was surprised that they had been able to get a reservation for six people.
Aadit Bhatia and Aurrel Bhatia, above, who had booked their table a day earlier, were finishing their meal. “It was fire,” said Aadit, a 21-year-old Celtics fan who lives in Boston.
At 4 Charles Prime Rib, a steakhouse in the West Village, servers handed out burgers topped with big chunks of bacon. All nine tables in the restaurant were occupied, said Ian Andrews, who checked in guests on an iPad and occasionally watched a TV in the window of a sports bar across the street. A man wearing a Knicks hat and jeans approached and asked if he could be added to the waiting list. “You're number 17,” Andrews said.
19:26
via carota
The streets of the West Village were filled with Jalen Brunson t-shirts and young people trying to install projectors. A couple dining out on Via Carota had brought their 5-month-old son, who was wearing a blue and orange Knicks jumpsuit. They had signed their names for a table about an hour earlier and had gotten lucky. His noodles were on the way. “It's slow tonight,” said Juan Ramírez, who was bussing tables.
19:39
wild cherry
There was no wait for two seats at the bar at Wild Cherry, the lively restaurant inside A24's Cherry Lane Theatre. “We're usually a lot busier right now,” said Aydin Canel, a bartender who grew up a Houston Rockets fan. Shaking a vodka martini, he said he hoped he could tell how the game was going by the energy in the room. However, when the scheduled announcement came at 8:30 pm, no one picked up the phone.
20:30
Ha's Snack Bar
The eight-seat bar at Ha's Snack Bar on the Lower East Side was nearly empty. While patrons sipped wine and slurped oysters, four cooks caught a glimpse of the game on a laptop sitting on a shelf in the open kitchen. “We're down,” one of them said, pouring fish sauce over a tub of pork ribs.
Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village was virtually obscured by the line of Knicks fans waiting to get into Off the Wagon, a sports bar down the block. One of the fans took a bite of his turkey sandwich. “If you're smart, you'd walk into a place like this; you won't have to wait long,” said Jimmy Antoine, above, manager of the tavern.
The restaurant wasn't showing the game, so Kobe Cuprill, a 25-year-old security guard, opened it on his iPhone. The Knicks were down in the first quarter and Karl-Anthony Towns was already in foul trouble. Cuprill decided to stay positive. “We're going back,” he said.
21:37
theodora
By the second quarter, hundreds of people had gathered to watch the game projected on the wall of a building in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Spike Lee has been known to parade after a Knicks victory. There were groans when Josh Hart missed a free throw and cheers when Brunson scored one. It was a relatively quiet night at Theodora, a Mediterranean restaurant where dinner lines usually start before 5 p.m.
Bo Hamby, a manager there, wasn't all that worried about missing the game. “Be sure to keep in mind that I'm a Dodgers and Lakers fan,” he said.
Trevor Edwards had waited until midnight a few weeks earlier to get a reservation at Bong, a Cambodian restaurant in Crown Heights. He wasn't willing to give it up, even though he's a die-hard Knicks fan. “I'm a little superstitious,” said Edwards, 36, a consultant. He and Ashaki Nehisi, 33, who works in technology, were watching the game on an iPhone between plates of fried dorade and salt-and-pepper shrimp.
The Knicks were behind, but it wasn't over yet. “I keep my fingers crossed,” Nehisi said.
He was right not to lose hope. An hour later, fans poured out of sports bars and upscale restaurants to celebrate in the streets. The Knicks had won it 107-106.
Christopher Calabrese contributed with reports.
