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The Independent

Inside the secret world of covert restaurant bookings where customers are ranked to get a table

Every evening, staff at The Aubrey in London 's Mandarin Oriental Hotel set two tables aside. 'We can draw curtains around them to cordon them off so that they offer more privacy,' says Romain Rousset, general manager at the acclaimed Japanese restaurant. The tables are reserved for celebrities who might want to pop in last minute. 'We mostly do it on weekends because we're so busy on Saturday nights,' Rousset adds. 'Some of them book themselves but they often do it under an alias. We're normally approached by agents or PAs. They will WhatsApp me directly so I can arrange tables for them.' Celebrities have always dined out at top restaurants. That much is not new. But thanks to social media and the power of a single paparazzi shot or Instagram post, the influence those celebrities can have on restaurant businesses has soared astronomically. Take Taylor Swift, who is photographed whenever she eats out, and particularly in New York, often resulting in worldwide headlines and a surge in bookings. It's no wonder, then, that restaurants have adapted their business models to accommodate famous people, and influencers who can nudge a restaurant into a 'destination' category even if that means regular (see: less important) diners can't ever get a table. Take Dorian, a celebrity hotspot where Dua Lipa recently dined with her boyfriend Callum Turner. With just 40 covers, the Notting Hill restaurant operates a covert bookings operation that sees potential diners being ranked. 'It's a tiered system whereby we rank how much we like the customer and the value of the customer, or the destructiveness of the customer. It's just like any sales business does,' said Chris D'Sylva, Dorian's owner, in an interview with the Daily Mail. In other words, if you're famous – and polite – chances are you're more likely to get a table. Elsewhere, there is talk of popular restaurants holding back tables for 'friends and family', aka celebrities and influencers who can request a table at the drop of a hat by simply dropping a message into a dedicated WhatsApp group – both The Dover and The French House have been said to operate such groups, though both restaurants denied doing so when approached by The Independent. 'We keep two seats each evening for any VIP or concierge bookings,' says Lucas Leong, co-founder of TAKU, a Michelin-starred Omakase restaurant in Mayfair that is regularly visited by celebrities. If they've been invited by the restaurant, they receive a free meal for two, including drinks. The same offering is given to influencers. 'Any celebrities or any VIPs who want to return after that receive a special number to WhatsApp us on to directly book and make requests,' adds Leong. 'Some celebrities are quite private and so we seat them with as much space possible on the day from others so they do not get disturbed during their meal.' Not everyone is quite so accommodating. In fact, some restaurants take the opposite approach altogether, insisting on a more egalitarian system. 'We don't treat celebrities any differently,' says Matthew Maynard, operations director at Gold, another celebrity-favoured spot in Notting Hill whose patrons have included Ed Sheeran, Sienna Miller and Princess Beatrice. 'People turn up all the time without a reservation and we end up having to turn them away because we're too busy,' he adds before referencing one occasion when a young woman who was new on reception told a household name they had no tables. 'I asked if she realised who she'd just turned away and she was flabbergasted. But she did the absolute right thing because we were full and, short of taking someone else's table, there was nothing we could do.' The Devonshire in Soho, which appears booked up for ever if you go on-line, operates a similar policy. 'I think because we're very busy all the time we get a lot of well-known people,' says landlord Oisín Rogers. 'None of them are treated differently. We always have a few tables available for walk-ins and sometimes the people who get those tables are well known.' Like many restaurateurs, Rogers relies on the discretion of his diners to maintain a private and comfortable atmosphere for all. Nigella Lawson, Lewis Capaldi, Joe Jonas and Bono have all been spotted. 'We actively discourage photography and we would be appalled if guests asked people in the public eye for selfies or any of that rubbish,' he says. Maynard agrees. 'We're not calling the paps or anything like that,' he says, explaining that generally guests are respectful of one another but there have been one or two occasions when someone has had to intervene when other diners have tried to get photos with celebrities. 'Occasionally the staff get a little starstruck, too, and need to take a breath but no one's ever lost their s**t,' he adds. 'It's quite sweet how some of them react sometimes.' The story is different for influencers. While not famous per se, at least not in the same way, they can have a major impact on businesses, too. But things have changed regarding how restaurants want to work with them. 'We have had people asking us to pay them £10,000 for one post but when you look at their page it all seems to be bought followers,' says Leong. 'We focus on organic followers. If someone has 100,000 followers and 30,000 likes, for example, that's someone we would rather work with as opposed to someone with a million followers and 3,000 likes.' They will also look at their page and see if their followers align with their target market. 'If someone has a page focusing on the cheapest eats in London, it is counter-intuitive to work with them as we are the polar opposite.' Chotto Matte, a popular Japanese restaurant in Soho, takes a similar approach, focusing on strong engagement, quality content and the right audience. 'If someone's style or following doesn't fit, or if their past collaborations don't reflect our values, we politely decline,' says founder Kurt Zdesar. 'The key is authenticity; we want genuine advocates, not just promotions.' However, many restaurants are now refusing to work with influencers altogether, simply seeing them as freeloaders. In February, D'Sylva dubbed them 'social scumbags' in an Instagram post featuring a screengrab of a request he'd received from an influencer asking 'to collaborate'. 'Kindly stop filling our DMs with unsolicited proposals for free food,' he wrote in a post on the Dorian Instagram account. 'You will automatically forfeit being able to come to the restaurant if you do.' There's no shortage of similar messages being sent to Gold. 'We get daily requests from influencers and always say no,' says Maynard. 'The better quality side of the restaurant industry is turning their back on that sort of thing now. It's hard enough running a restaurant as it is without giving away free meals to influencers. As for celebrities, well, they have enough money to spend.' Regardless of your strategy, relying too heavily on celebrities or influencers is likely going to end in disaster. Sure, the buzz of a famous diner, or someone with a very engaged social media following, may linger and result in an uptick in bookings. But Maynard believes it's only ever going to be a transient boost. 'I think The Dover is having a honeymoon period with that right now,' he says, noting how videos of Pedro Pascal dining at the Mayfair establishment recently went viral. 'Inevitably, you'll see a positive uptick from that. But these are all short-term things. Building a restaurant based on celebrities is not really a sustainable thing. It can't last.'