In Defense of the 5:30pm Dinner Reservation
And why it's actually the GOAT, as the kids would say
Imagine this: You walk into one of Miami’s buzziest, most impossible-to-book restaurants. You know the one - where you’re constantly refreshing for a Resy notice, just hoping for a slot to open up. You walk in and the place isn’t even that busy yet. You’re greeted by a happy staff and led to a table where you aren’t practically sitting in your neighbor’s lap. You can actually sit and enjoy your meal while your server pays you a ton of attention.
This isn’t some make believe fantasy - it’s the reality of a 5:30 p.m. dinner reservation in Miami.
Now, Miami is famously a late city, probably due to the heavy Latin American and European influences that don’t even think about dinner until at least 9 p.m. And while most people are fighting for the 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. slots, the real “sweet spot” in my humble opinion has shifted to way earlier: 5:30 p.m.
When I tell people this, my friends usually laugh. Like, 5:30 p.m.?
While my friends aren’t necessarily spring chicke…
