Chapter 1
A Table for Four at Eight
How a Matchmaker Took the Friction out of Restaurant Reservations
It’s Saturday morning in the summer of 1998. Julie Templeton’s mom and dad are coming into town the next weekend. She and her husband, Chuck, want to treat them to a gala restaurant weekend in San Francisco, with dinners out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
Julie starts dialing for reservations. No answer. She leaves a message. She keeps calling, restaurant after restaurant. Some don’t have anything on the evenings she wants. One she wants to go to on Sunday isn’t open. Almost four hours later, after a lot of calling and juggling, she’s got the weekend planned.1
Back then, making dinner reservations was hard. Taking them was, also. ...
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