There’s an early episode of the HBO series Sex and the City where Kim Cattrall’s character Samantha Jones finds herself a sudden social pariah, blacklisted from every hot restaurant in town after making an enemy of a powerful New York City socialite.  Watching Sam fall into despair as doors are slammed in her face and she’s repeatedly rejected trying to make a dinner reservation, I realized the comedic situation seemed just a little too familiar for comfort.

Booking dinner reservations in New York City these days feels frustrating at best, and often even impossible. The process of planning a meal with friends now includes time spent commiserating about how difficult it is just to find a nice place to eat. As we obsessively scroll through apps and fruitlessly place ourselves on dozens of waitlists, it begs the question: have restaurant reservation apps turned all of us into social pariahs?