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Being popular can be a bitch, and apparently so can would-be LudoBites diners who lashed out at Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his wife Krissy yesterday evening as the reservations system went live for the pop-up restaurant's sixth installation.
Using the OpenTable reservation system, diners seeking a coveted table at the temporary restaurant dealt with a tech meltdown last night at 5 when the reservations were opened up. Angry Tweets and emails issued in frustration revealed that Angelenos and impending visitors take dining out at Lefebvre's innovative itinerant restaurant beyond seriously.
This morning OpenTable has issued a public apology:
We apologize to the Lefebvres and all of the diners who experienced technical problems while trying to book reservations for LudoBites 6.0 last night. LudoBites is a phenomenon that concentrates unprecedented reservation demand for a single restaurant with a limited number of tables in a very short window of time. We had a plan for how to customize our service to accommodate the extraordinary search volume for LudoBites 6.0, but we didn’t implement that plan properly. The traffic overwhelmed our systems, and some hopeful diners experienced intermittent problems until the restaurant was fully booked after less than 90 minutes.
With over 35,000 hits to the Lefebvre website (refresh, refresh, new window, refresh having a lot to do with it) the demand far surpassed the supply, and many were left disappointed. However, not all hope is lost--each night of the Sherman Oaks pop-up the restaurant will have a communal table for 12 open to first-come, first-serve walk-in diners. And, since life happens, watch Krissy Lefebvre's Twitter during the run for word of cancellations needing to be filled.
