Good Things Come to Those Who Don't Wait

New York is a place that rewards those who act quickly. There are lots of great things to do in this city, but there are even more people who want to do them, so planning ahead is essential. Want to see that hot new movie on opening weekend? Better buy your tickets online a few days in advance and show up at the theater at least an hour early (more than two hours if you're going to see part of a popular series or a really anticipated opener) or you'll get stuck sitting in the very front row. Feel like splurging on a great dinner on Friday night? Make reservations at least a week in advance, or show up prepared to stand in the bar for several hours while you wait for a table to open up. (You may get a bar stool eventually, but you'll have to earn it.) For those who don't get a reservation or an advance ticket, the outcomes are to simply go a few weeks down the road (for shows), go at a less popular time (6:00 for dinner), or to throw in the towel and try something else (there's always a cheap, decent Thai place in the neighborhood that can accommodate you in a jiffy).

After being burned many, many (many, many) times, I no longer even try to go to above average restaurants on weekends between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 unless I have a reservation. Brunch from 12:00 to 2:00 is a similar story. If I want tickets to a show, I act fast. Things sell out here with alarming rapidity, and it's just not worth it to leave things to chance.

So when Ed decided that he wanted to go to Blue Hill for his birthday, I knew I had to get moving. Ed's birthday is in mid-March, which left precious little time. Blue Hill is a much lauded restaurant affiliated with Stone Barns, an organic farm in Westchester, NY. It's about 30 miles outside of NYC, but its distance and price tag are not deterrents and it's tough to secure a spot. For the kind of leisurely dinner I envisioned--on a weekend with four friends--I'd need to act fast.

I learned that Blue Hill takes reservations two months in advance, and that one can book right on their website. This was great news; it meant no sitting by the phone in breathless anticipation then feverishly dialing their number the second they opened, hoping to be the first in line. I had no idea how big the place was, but I didn't want to get bumped. Since we wanted to go on March 15th, I set my alarm clock to go off at 5:00 on the morning of January 15th. Accordingly, this morning, I staggered out of bed and made my way through the dark to my computer. I found, to my shock, that the time I'd arbitrarily picked, 7:00, would not work for a party of 6. Luckily, 7:30 would, and I pounced.

A few hours later, after the sun had come up and most normal people had started their days, I decided to try to make another reservation just out of curiosity. When I did, at about 9:00 A.M., the earliest a party of 6 could sit down at Blue Hill would be 9:00 P.M. Keep in mind that this is two months down the road. Blue Hill serves the kind of multi-course dinners that take a long time to eat, and such a late start, while workable, would not be ideal.

The early bird gets the delectable, multi-course, locally sourced and organic dinner at a desirable time in these parts. Now I have two months to get excited.