I remember a popular restaurant in NYC in the late 2000's had a "in person request for reservation only" policy. The thought was that if you lived in the neigh

I remember a popular restaurant in NYC in the late 2000's had a "in person request for reservation only" policy. The thought was that if you lived in the neighborhood, you would walk down to the restaurant around 4pm, make your reservation, go home and then come back for dinner. In practice, this meant that if you wanted a spontaneous "let's go eat there" type of evening and you didn't live in the neighborhood, you wouldn't be eating dinner till after midnight.