TableSAVVY Lets Diners Book Last-Minute Tables
By Staff in Food on May 4, 2013 6:00PM
Nellcôte
It's Friday night at 6 p.m., you're a party of four with nowhere to go, and have been rejected by hostesses all over town. Meet TableSAVVY, the newest player in the online reservation game. A member of Chicago's digital startup incubator, 1871, TableSAVVY allows restaurants to market their same-day seating availability. Diners who use the website are charged a $5 booking fee and are given a 30% discount off the food portion of their bill in return.
Unlike other sites of its kind, TableSAVVY has created a partnership with Chicago Magazine that allows readers of the mag’s digital dining guide to book reservations directly through the site. Restaurants already on board include Rockit, Spiaggia, Sunda, Nellcote, Prasino, Old Town Social, Blue Agave, and many others.
We chatted with TableSAVVY CEO/founder, Jeremy Klein, to get the scoop on Chicago's newest dining venture.
CHICAGOIST: How was the idea behind TableSaVVY created?
Jeremy Klein: I was sitting in class one Tuesday night, and I had a friend in town and I wanted to make a dinner reservation for the night. I looked on Open Table on my phone, and saw that pretty much every restaurant on there had availability because Tuesdays are usually slow nights. I then thought to myself, “I wonder if there is a way for restaurants to fill these last minute empty tables during their off-peak hours”. After looking around, I couldn’t find a service that provided restaurants real-time access to a customer base to fill last minute empty tables, so I sought to close that gap, and create a solution, and from there it kind of all began.
C: What makes TableSAVVY different than other reservation systems?
JK: We differentiate ourselves from our competitors because we’ve created a customer platform where restaurants can post reservations through the TableSAVVY system real-time and customers can instantly grab them. We also have partnered with Chicago Magazine to create a network where people can not only grab a reservation, but also browse restaurant reviews, recommendations and other new dining content.
C: Talk to us about your partnership with Chicago Magazine. How did it come about? How important is it to your business model?
JK: It came about from a relationship that one of our co-founders had at Chicago Magazine. We went in, and pitched the team, and they loved the idea from the start. Chicago Magazine is very important to our business model, as one of the things we are pitching restaurants is this real-time access to a very targeted foodie market at Chicago Magazine to fill their last minute empty tables.
C: How do you anticipate the partnership with Chicago Magazine promoting the growth of TableSAVVY and creating a new user experience for diners in Chicago?
JK: TableSAVVY has a live feed of all of that night's reservations that displays directly on the Chicago Magazine site. This early exposure should provide us with a significant amount of traffic which should definitely help our growth in the early stages. Along with all of Chicago Magazine’s marketing efforts on our behalf, they will play a huge role in our growth.
C: You've already signed on some of Chicago's largest restaurant groups (Rockit Ranch Productions, Element Collective). Was it difficult to get them on board?
JK: It was a little difficult before the Chicago Magazine partnership as we really didn’t have the reach that the restaurants were looking for to fill these last minute empty tables. However, after linking up with the magazine, and pitching the idea of last minute access to their target market, we had a much more attractive product to put in front of the restaurants.
C: What's next? Will TableSAVVY be expanding outside of Chicago?
JK: Our goal is to first get our footing in Chicago with all of the great restaurants and active dining scene. We could definitely see this working in other cities and will be releasing a lot of exciting developments over the next couple of months.
—By Jennifer Fisher