When 'no reservations' is more than a TV show

At a recent King BBQ pop-up featuring Top Chef winner Tristen Epps, there was a buzz online about the event. The restaurant takes no reservations! Get there early!

An hour before opening, in the rain, the line wrapped around the building and, it turns out, some in line reported being turned away when the food ran out.

Why wouldn’t every restaurant just take reservations?

Turns out, restaurants like King BBQ have good reasons.

The philosophy behind no reservations

“Most barbecue places run their service the way King BBQ does,” said Corrie Wang, who also owns Jackrabbit Filly, with her husband, Shuai. “You order at the counter and then get a table.

Dropping in is the way barbecue places work. We do take reservations at Jackrabbit Filly, though, but we weren’t even going to take reservations there, originally.”

Chubby Fish is another place that takes no reservations, although its next-door sister, Seahorse, does reserve for private dining.

“We have no shortage of people who will line up outside in order to come in and eat at Chubby Fish,” owner James London said. “Sure, it does turn away some people, but for the most part, what we get at the end of the day is a crowd of guests who really want to be there, and that’s huge. We have people who plan their entire evening around eating at Chubby Fish, and honestly, those are the type of people we want.”

How do you plan if you don’t know the size of your dinner crowd?

“It’s easy. We know we’re going to do between 160 to 180 people every night, so that’s our capacity. That’s all we can do, so every night is the same,” London said.

Wang said trends did develop over time and you plan for that.

“Sometimes, it’s by the seat of your pants, like when there’s a show at the Coliseum we forgot to know about and an extra 100 people come through the door and everybody’s scrambling to put meat on the smoker. It’s intense, but it’s fun.”

No reservations also means no cancellations

One thing that no-reservations places don’t have to worry about is cancellations, which is why those that take reservations have policies in place.

“We do have a cancellation policy,” said Dario Vigil, Sorelle’s general manager. “We have a pretty efficient confirmation system, and we reach out three times to confirm the date and time so there’s no confusion, and our management team is proactive in trying to reschedule if there’s something like a weather event.”

“We definitely have an issue. We have a lot of late last-minute cancellations on Saturday nights,” said Eldredge Ropolo, owner and director of operations at Legami. “Weekends tend to be bigger no-shows than weekdays.”

The no-shows are a bigger headache than cancellations.

“It can definitely hurt,” said Kenny Lyons, president of Neighborhood Dining Group, which operates Husk, Delaney Oyster House, the James, Minero and Marbled and Fin. “At least with cancellations, Resy will ping everyone on a notify list that there are tables available, but any time you lose a table at the last minute, it’s going to make an impact on your financials.”

Ropolo explained that if a 6:30 p.m. reservation doesn’t show, the restaurant will hold the table for 15 minutes, but that eats into the time for the next reservation at 8 p.m. Unless someone is already waiting, the table may just sit empty, which impacts not only the restaurant, but also the servers hoping for tips.

“I don’t think people know how detrimental it is to a restaurant for someone to reserve a 10-top and then just not show,” Wang said. “Some people just like the convenience of making two reservations at different restaurants, just to be safe, but it is painful for us.”

Finding a table as a local or a walk-in

With the influx of Charleston tourists, it can be hard for locals to find a table. But restaurateurs plan for that, and Chubby Fish’s London said his no-reservations policy actually helps locals.

“The great thing is that if you want to come in tonight, you can get a table tonight. If we took reservations, I promise you, you would not be able to get a reservation. Yes, people may get upset because we have a line outside, but they’d be more upset if it was impossible to get a reservation because so many people go to their computers and snap them up so quickly,” he said.

Wang said Jackrabbit Filly keeps its bar for walk-ins, mostly locals, and Vigil said Sorelle managers keep in touch with locals on a personal level.

“We do everything we can to ensure that we’re keeping an inventory of tables and can support locals. We typically have one to three tables,” Lyons said. “Tourists are making plans months in advance, and they gobble up tables, and then your locals are kind of alienated and, in time, would just stop trying.”

Ropolo said Legami opens its patio seats 24 hours in advance and has 30 seats at its bars, all of which are prime walk-in territory.

Penalties for no-shows

Some restaurants will charge for unused reservations, especially for those who just don’t show up. But the charges never really cover what an average diner would spend.

Vigil said Sorelle charges $50 a person for no-shows and reserves peak time slots for guests with a history of showing up. Ropolo said Legami charges $20 a person, and fears a higher charge would make people hesitate to reserve in the first place.

Lyons said its restaurants often don’t charge if someone calls to cancel, but no-calls and no-shows are charged $25 a person.

“Being in the hospitality industry, it’s hard to take a tough stance on this. We’re humans,” Lyons said.