Hello and welcome to Dining Dispatch. This week, we’re delving into a brewing showdown in the restaurant reservation world. During Super Bowl weekend in New Orleans, restaurateur Lydia Castro discovered a glitch in Resy that left tables at Acamaya mysteriously empty. Moments later, an OpenTable representative arrived, offering a cooler of Gatorade—and a lucrative deal. Castro asked, “How do they have so much money to give out to people?” The answer? Credit card giants like Visa and American Express are bankrolling OpenTable and Resy to court high-end diners, offering some restaurants cash payments as high as $95,000 to switch platforms. Chef Fermín Núñez admits, “It feels kind of weird that restaurants are this hot commodity,” yet he’s glad for the infusion. And restaurateur Greg Ryan says the money helps him “pay our teams more” and “deliver a better product.” As reservation platforms battle for the best tables, restaurants suddenly wield unprecedented leverage. Is this golden era here to stay? Only time will tell.
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