DO You Take your Baby to a Restaurant, Wait at the Bar? Read This

 NYC restaurants are imposing strict bar rules — and customers are pissed……Only in NYC

It’s a total vibe killer. 

Walking into a NYC restaurant and snagging a seat at the bar has long been a classic move, but, across the city, establishments are instituting new policies around bar seating, from reservations to formal wait lists. The walk-in is an endangered species, and patrons are furious. 

At the hugely popular Hillstone in Murray Hill, new rules require that customers who want to sit at the bar put their name on a waitlist. Only parties of one or two are allowed to sit at the bar, and those waiting for a seat may not order drinks until they get a stool.

Gabrielle Smith, 34 and a Hillstone regular, has been so annoyed by the draconian drinking rules, she started a petition on Change.org. In less than a week, it’s gotten more than 870 signatures. 

“The first-come, first-served policy was not only fair but also added to the charm and character of the Hillstone bar,” it reads. “It allowed patrons to engage in friendly competition for seats and fostered camaraderie among regulars.” 

For the past five years, Smith, a nurse manager at a plastic surgeon’s office, has had a regular Sunday ritual at the chain restaurant, which has a cult-like following and only one location left in Manhattan after a Midtown outpost closed earlier this year.

She and several friends would go to Hillstone, get a drink, and then stake out first-come, first-served seats at the bar, a task she described as “survival of the fittest.” Once they’d secured their spot, she’d order a chicken sandwich and then spend the day drinking and meeting new people around her. 

“I have a Hillstone addiction,” she said. “I love it there.” 

Last Sunday, she was shocked when she was told about the new policies. She started talking to fellow patrons and found they were also outraged. 

“People were very worked up because one, it didn’t make any sense and, two, this isn’t how it has ever worked there,” she said. 

So, while at the restaurant, she and her friend Mariam Airapetian, 30 and a client relations manager in high fashion, whipped up the petition and began circulating it to customers. 

“We Airdropped it to everyone at the restaurant, and the response was hysterical. Everyone was so up for it and they sent it to their friends immediately,” she said. One of the managers even found out what she was doing and asked a few people at the bar to put it away. 

Hillstone declined to comment on the matter, but it’s hardly the only local restaurant where bar seating has become an issue. 

Riana MacKenzie, a 31-year-old who works in marketing for TikTok, said in recent times at Lure Fishbar, she’s grabbed a seat at the bar only to be told it’s “reservation only.” 

“I used to go to all the time, but now I feel they are weirdly tough,” she said. 

“I’ve seen the same thing happen at Bond Street,” she added. “There will be empty seats at the bar and people will go and sit there and someone will come up to them and say they are reservation only.” 

A general manager at Lure told The Post while their bar is “first-come, first-served,” they do sometimes reserve seats for regulars. Bond Street claims to be “first-come, first-served” but noted you can make a reservation for the lounge and then ask to sit at the bar. 

And, numerous trendy restaurants, such as Lord’s, Maison Premiere and Foxface Natural, offer up their bar seats on reservation sites alongside slots for tables in the dining room.

At buzzy cocktail bar the Nines, it’s nearly impossible to get a seat without a reservation, though a representative told The Post that they technically allow walk-ins. 

But, another hotspot, Temple Bar, is bucking the trend. During the pandemic, it strongly encouraged reservations at the bar, but it recently switched to walk-in only. 

“[We want] our neighbors always [to] feel welcome to come in for a drink,” general manager Amanda Kuhn told The Post. 

Mackenzie hopes more places will head back in that direction.

She signed the Hillstone petition and strongly believes something is lost if New Yorkers can no longer walk-in and grab a bar seat. 

“What happened to bar culture? I’m not going to go to a place alone, get on the waitlist, stand to the side without a drink or be asked to leave,” she said. “I am not going to risk what that would do to my ego.”