Tickets, please

If you are a concert attender, you know how exciting (and sometimes frustrating) it can be to get tickets to a very popular event. You might stand in line or set your alarm for a ridiculously early time so you could make the phone call as soon as the tickets go on sale. Now, some restaurants are moving away from reservations and to such a ticketing system, reports NPR’s The Salt.

The ticketing system, invented by Nick Kokonas of restaurant Next, is becoming popular with small, exclusive restaurants. It has the advantage of nullifying the problem of “no-shows” that can plague eateries, driving up their costs. Kokonas says that the ticketing system will be rolled out “to about 10 to 20 restaurants over the next couple of months worldwide.”

But not all chefs are on board with the practice, even in “no-show” hotspots like Los Angeles. Says chef Curtis Stone, owner of a new restaurant called Maude, “some people out there don’t feel as comfortable with computers or making reservations online.” Another drawback is that ticketing systems invite scalpers, who resell the tickets online through sites like Craigslist. 

What do you think of restaurant ticketing systems?