Why You Can Never Find a Dinner Reservation for 7 P.M. Online

Nick Kokonas was a successful derivatives trader in Chicago who also liked to eat out. But when he met chef Grant Achatz in 2004, he discovered two things fast: the world of restaurants hadn’t kept up with the technological advances that had altered the world of finance, and the failure of restaurants to adapt to optimizing its seats the way airlines had done was a potentially giant business opportunity.

So he quit the trading floor, went into business with Achatz, and within a few years their Chicago restaurant Alinea had three Michelin stars (the highest ranking) and a list of “world’s best” awards. While Achatz cooked, Kokonas formed Tock, a different approach to restaurant reservations. According to Kokonas, online services such as OpenTable do not require restaurants to show all their open tables each night; prime-time spots tend to be held for their own purposes, just as with an old-fashioned reservation book.