Should El Paso Restaurants Take Reservations?

This weekend a lot of people will be going out to get dinner in anticipation of Valentine's Day, and Monday, February 14 will be crazy with couples trying to have a romantic dinner on a school and work night. All those couples will be either waiting for tables to open up or they might have already made reservations at restaurants that will take them, but not all do. Valentine's Day reservations are a great thing, but should El Paso restaurants think about making that something they do all the time, not just on special occasions?

WAITING IS WACK
Even before COVID hit the restaurant industry hard, going out to eat in El Paso was already a waiting game. Restaurant owners have customers from both El Paso and Juarez and if you go out to eat you know that we love to bring a lot of people along for the grub. That leads to sometime 90 minute waits and restaurant staff that is overworked and not always able to give the best service. Wouldn't reservations be better?

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?
Of course, reservations only work if people show up for them, which is not always the case. Restaurant owners are sometimes held hostage by no-shows who show up 15 or 20 minutes late or sometimes even later. That's not fair. There was a great restaurant in San Diego that I used to go to all the time that would only seat a reservation if everyone was there within 15 minutes of the reservation time. People knew they were serious and I only saw a partial group turned away once.

BE FOODIE, NOT A FOOL
El Paso is developing a pretty strong foodie restaurant culture. You can check out some great local restaurants by clicking here. But if we are going to be a real foodie paradise, we need to act like we've been somewhere before. That means showing up on time for reservations, not expecting to be seated without our whole party there on time, and realizing that making a reservation is way better than waiting around for 45 minutes for a table to open up. Hopefully restaurants can start doing reservations all the time and not just on special occasions.