Why We Don’t Take Reservations: A Portland Restaurateur Explains
Thursday, September 11, 2014
In my last column, I discussed a local predisposition to no-reservation policies at certain hot restaurants. I personally don’t like these policies, but to be sure, others do. Some responses to my piece included folks pointing out what good is taking reservations if you can’t get one? We’ll get to that another time, but I wanted to offer the restaurateur perspective and to find out how a no-reservations policy works for them.
If you’re interested in examining the world of no-reservation dining in Portland, restauranteur John Gorham’s wildly popular spots Toro Bravo and Tasty & Sons are pictures of the very form.
Dinner waits at Toro Bravo can hit two hours during prime time and the same for brunch at Tasty & Sons (although this place is soon to transform into another type of dining spot: stay tuned). Renee Gorham is John’s wife and she manages Toro Bravo. We talked to her to get her take on no-reservations alchemy.
Fast-churning environment
She says at Toro Bravo’s birth, they went with no reservations because the original concept was for a rowdy, loud tapas bar like in Spain and those are a fast-churning casual environment. “But Toro Bravo became very popular, very quickly,” she said. “And the menu grew much faster than expected and it became more of a dinner house.”
“We’re very fortunate,” she said. “We’re successful every night of the week.”
At this point, the place does take a limited number of reservations for parties of seven or more.
Well-rehearsed choreography
The system in place may seem chaotic at first blush, but Gorham outlines a well-rehearsed choreography that she believes has its roots in good hospitality. It starts when guests first approach a host at Toro Bravo.
“They are going to make that guest their universe for that time and go over various options for them while they wait,” she says. Since people are on stand-by for so long, Gorham describes what sounds almost like a manual GPS system they use to keep track of the throngs as they move around waiting areas while ordering drinks. They have what they call a transfer ticket and they keep updating it as the person moves around: front, left, right, upstairs, etc…
While many people think this no reservation policy at a popular restaurant can instill bad feelings among the clientele, Gorham believes otherwise.
“If we did half walk-ins, half reservations, the walk-ins would be looking at empty tables reserved for other people that they can’t sit in and it would create an immensely in-hospitable environment,” she said.
Controlled chaos
The controlled chaos of this situation lends itself to the kind of buoyancy that comes from crowds pulsing with anticipation (and drinking on an empty stomach), but does it open itself up to be the sort of place you go to mark milestones and cleave to even after the initial sparkle starts to fade? Gorham says that there have indeed been marriage proposals at Toro Bravo and it is a milestone type of place for those who like making a night of it all.
This isn’t a question that Toro Bravo, whose popularity seems unwavering at this point in time, seems to need to wrestle with. But the Gorhams have indeed wrestled with it. Their latest enterprise, Pearl District restaurant Mediterranean Exploration Company, recently opened and it does take reservations.
“We need to grow up a little bit,” said Gorham. “We do understand that people want their night planned. I do encourage people to make a night of it, but you don’t always have that ability.”
This is the second in an occasional series on restaurant access in Portland.
Caryn Brooks is a former Associated Press and Time Magazine staffer who now lives in Portland and will be writing about restaurants and lifestyle for Go Local PDX.
Homepage Photo Credit: Matthias Rhomberg via Compfight cc
Delivered Free Every
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It