Sat 5 Sep
Five rooms you can sit in tonight.
Saturday is the hardest night of the week to sit down in New York, so tonight all five keep no reservation book at all. The way in is the door, and it is earlier than you want it to be.
We never hold, resell or book a table. Availability moves minute to minute, so go early rather than late.
The Snail
Greenpoint
A small American bistro with a short bar at the front where people wait with a glass of wine, and a dining room kept soft and low behind it. It has the unbothered feel of a place the whole city has not got to yet.
walk in and give your name — no book for a two
Walk-in only for parties under seven, per their own site and their Resy venue page.
Bánh Anh Em
East Village
A narrow Vietnamese room with the kitchen open at the back and a counter facing the cooks, so the char and the turmeric reach you before the menu does. Close quarters, a handful of two-tops, and enough movement that two people at the counter feel part of it.
join the line — it forms outside around 5.15
No reservations, walk-ins only, per their own site and The Infatuation's walk-in guide.
Lucky Charlie
Bushwick
A coal-oven pizza room down in a basement that feels older than the block above it, signed ballpark photographs on the walls and Rat Pack records low over the tables. There is a bar along one side that pours long after the neighborhood has gone quiet.
walk in and take a bar seat — walk-ins only, late
Open for exclusively walk-ins, per The Infatuation's walk-in guide and their own posted hours.
Emilio's Ballato
Nolita
A room barely wider than a hallway, dim the way a room gets dim from age rather than design, with photographs of old regulars crowding every inch of wall. The murmur and the glassware have sounded the same in there for decades.
walk in before 7 — after that the line is the evening
Walk-in only, no phone reservations, per The Infatuation's walk-in guide and their current listed hours.
Bar Pitti
Greenwich Village
A yellow awning, sidewalk tables spilling towards Sixth Avenue, and inside a tight room of paper tablecloths and black-and-white photographs. It runs on a chalkboard and a host who reads the line at a glance.
walk in before 6.30 and ask for the sidewalk
A no-reservation room, per The Infatuation's walk-in guide.
None of these keep a book, so there is no page to send you to. That is the point of them.
That’s tonight. Coat, keys, go.