Turf War: MPD vs 27th Street

Run to the store and gather the bare necessities. Put bars on the windows, add another dead bolt to the door and perhaps look into hiring some private security. Apparently, there's a turf war that has broken out between New York City's most important nightlife characters, and they are taking no prisoners! It's 27th Street vs. Meatpacking District, and the winner will take all. How do we know all this? New nightlife blog Goodnight Mr. Lewis brings us this breaking news in an interview with Carlo Seneca, co-owner of Prime and Suzie Wong. Let's go to the transcript:

Steve Lewis: Your competition is really the Meatpacking District. It’s the clash of the titans: Chelsea against Meatpacking

Carlo Seneca: Exactly, we wanna pull as many people as we can out of there. I believe that Meatpacking is becoming too commercialized. The revitalization of this neighborhood is happening with Mansion and us at Suzie Wong and Prime leading the way.

Wow. Thanks for pointing that out. Who knew that the Meatpacking District had become so mersh that 27th Street would be able to bring some real authenticity back? Certainly not us. Probably not anyone. With re-zonings, rising rents, and a general lack of interest, both of these areas will be virtually nightlife free within 5 years.

But for now, please choose a side and keep your head on a swivel for flying lemon drop shots.

[Photo Credit]

PrimeTime Tables Hits A Snag

Speaking of tough tables, it looks like PrimeTime Tables, the service that provides members with "hard-to-get reservations at leading dining venues" has run into a problem with their business model. It seems members are bailing on their reservations. A Little Birdy sent along an email that PTT sent to its members, saying:

We are aware that at this time of the year you have a lot of events ,cocktails and dinner parties to attend and are trying to be at more than one place at a time. We also know that this is the time of the year where dinner reservations are the most difficult for everyone to get and using PTT to secure that reservation is a smart way to go. However asking for a reservation or securing a reservation from the website and NO SHOW will not be accepted as it simply destroys the business and the relationship we have built with a lot of restaurants over the years. This email is sent to all our members and is not meant to attack anyone in particular, but we have received calls lately from restaurant that our Member did not show up. Each time this happens it affects our relationship and the capability to accommodate the next member to that restaurant

As PTT is a web community, and its business is based on trust. You trust us when we confirm your reservation, we need to trust you that you will show up once you acquire a reservation.

To try to stop from happening again we need to implement a rule that will maybe stop the NO SHOW and affects every other member. The rule is as follows:

1 No show = 2 months no access to the website

2 No show= membership cancelled.

We thank you for your time and understanding.

Boom! Threatening your own customers - we like your gumption PTT. But if your clients are such busy, important people that they can't bother making their own reservations, why would they bother to cancel either? Answer: They wouldn't. If you are willing to buy a table, than surely that fee includes the right to bail without notice. Apparently not.