Perfect Pivots, Part 2 ↪️
More backup plans for when the restaurant you want to eat at quotes you an hour (or longer).
Hi everyone. This is Perfect Pivots, Part 2. I’ve been busy baking beautiful cakes for my beautiful friends, so this follow up took me longer than I’d hoped, but this is a series about waiting. Still, thank you for being patient. The first Perfect Pivots, with suggestions for what to do while waiting for tables at places like Thai Diner and Via Carota, is now free to read.
A friend told me last weekend that she tried to eat at The Snail recently. Don't ask me why she wanted to do that. (I'm sorry, I simply cannot stop talking shit about this restaurant!) They quoted her a three-hour wait, so she walked over to Bonnie's, which surprisingly was quite easy to get a table at after its first few years of being massively popular. A very smart pivot. Earlier this week another friend put our name down at Torrisi at 8:15pm. We sat down at the bar at 10:45pm. I would never tell you to wait that long to eat dinner, certainly not on a weeknight, but I would recommend showing back up for just dessert and finding something to do in the meantime. Try to get into Raf's if you must be somewhere chic. If you just want to get drunk, post up at Tom and Jerry's or Botanica Bar. Fish Cheeks is nearby if you're hungry — the branzino is served in a silver fish dish, covered in herbs and delicious. Once you’re finally seated, it’s very important to get the affogato, still one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in this city. Another perfect pivot!
Today's column has even more structured suggestions for where to wait, where to have a similar meal and where to go for something completely different but just as good when hot spots Monkey Bar, Chez Fifi, Hoexter's and Hillstone don't have any immediate walk in availability.
Hillstone
This used to be a place I could walk in with a few friends to split spinach artichoke dip and eat hot fudge sundaes after working out. Last time I considered checking in about a table, post-TikTok boom and the shuttering of their Midtown location (leaving just one in the whole city), the friend I was with looked me up and down and said my jeans, cute top and I were “too underdressed for Hillstone.” Nothing good lasts forever…
Wait it out at: Well, Hillstone. They’ll let you order drinks while you stand around waiting for a bar seat or a table in the front bar room. Just a reminder that their “Hillstone Negroni” comes with a lime in it, which I’ve been told I reacted dramatically to, but absolutely ruins an otherwise perfect drink.
Anyway, waiting at the restaurant also gives you the option to steal one of the first come, first serve tables in that area, but I’ll warn you — and this is coming from someone very skilled at poaching tables like this — that hunt is not for the faint of heart. The reservation-less diners here are ruthless. For that reason, I’d rather wait it out with a martini at the gorgeous Tusk Bar just up the street. Further back in that room is Brass, which also has a nice, dark, sexy bar. I love a restaurant big enough to explore. I’ve also wanted to stop by the The Fifth Avenue Hotel for a drink at Portrait Bar for a while, and a friend with very good taste told me the cocktails at Clemente Bar are fun, fancy and fabulous.
Have a similar meal at:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Perfect City to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.