Hi, it’s Kate Krader, food editor at Bloomberg Pursuits. I’m currently based in London, but right now my head is in my native New York City, home of a lot of restaurant action this fall.

First and foremost is the opening of supper-club-styled the Eighty Six, from the team behind the buzzy forever Corner Store; it’s coming to the old Chumley’s space in the West Village. It’s a big deal for me, because Chumley’s is the place where my parents met and where I spent no small amount of my 20s, when it felt like the city’s funnest pub.

Chocolate layer cake, coming soon to ABC Kitchens, one of the 14 most exciting restaurants and bars opening this fall. Source: ABC Kitchens

There’s also a deluge of other big openings in the Big Apple: Cal-Italian pioneering cook Jonathan Waxman is bringing Barbuto and kale salad to Brooklyn, while OG Babbo chef Mark Ladner will reopen the place with star hospitality operator Stephen Starr, plus a bunch of minimal seat, maximal quality sushi spots.

All of this means it will be as hard as ever to get into these hot-ticket dining rooms, and not just in New York. (Among the big openings in London this season: Carbone! A new spot from sushi master Masa Takayama! A Richard Caring project! And that’s just in the new Rosewood London.) I’ve been a broken record about the demand for the top dining spots and their endless nightly waitlists.

So isn’t it high time you became a restaurant VIP?

The art of perfect vibes: What NYC’s top restaurants have in common (and no, not just that you can’t get in). Photographer: Evan Sung/The New York Times/Redux

This information comes courtesy of Adam Reiner, author of the upcoming The New Rules of Dining Out: An Insider’s Guide to Enjoying Restaurants (LSU Press; Sept. 19; $30). Reiner, who’s also a Bloomberg Pursuits contributor, has more than 20 years of experience waiting tables at notable restaurants including Babbo; he knows the kind of behavior that will get customers preferential treatment, even if it’s in a room jammed with celebrities and power brokers.

In a recent interview, Reiner outlined half a dozen rules with me. They range from the semi-obvious—“don’t be glued to your phone,” because servers tend to ignore distracted guests who check their messages and TikTok feeds nonstop—to something that I, even as a very seasoned restaurantgoer, wouldn’t think to do, which is to tip the busboy or busgirl: “Slipping them a crisp $20 will help ensure that your water glasses remain full, your bread basket is replenished and your table will always be cleared in a timely fashion.” 

I’m an inveterate restaurantgoer and I learned a little something from Reiner. 

Source: LSU Press

But the heart of The New Rules of Dining Out isn’t just about getting access to prime-time tables and a free dessert. It’s about being a more mindful diner—an attitude that works well for the beleaguered restaurant industry—and maximizing your experience, even if it’s imperfect.

In a chapter titled “Managing Disappointing Experiences,” Reiner recounts a time he was working at the Grill in New York City when a table ordered a $500 wagyu steak. About an hour later, after the table’s pasta course was finished, a giant crash resounded in the dining room: A server had dropped that pricey steak on the floor. (GASP!)

The Grill—formerly the Four Seasons—changed the culinary landscape of Midtown Manhattan when Major Food Group took it over in 2017. Photographer: Gabriela Herman/Bloomberg

It’s the kind of event that ruins a night, for everyone. But, Reiner recounts, the table turned it into a party while they waited for their new steak. Furthermore, it almost certainly benefited them in the future: “A manager or maitre d’ will make a note of the bad experience on the guest’s reservation profile in the system to warn staff to handle with care on future visits,” he wrote. The table might even be invited back for a comp meal. 

But perhaps my biggest message from Reiner’s book is this: You can have a bad experience in a great restaurant. And vice versa. Never forget that you’re a part of making an experience succeed or fail. So make it work.

Connect with Kate via email or Instagram.

And in other news to maximize your fall

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died at home in Milan Thrusday at 91, was what the French call “un grand monsieur”—a great gentleman. Yes, he ran a multibillion-dollar global corporation that included fashion from jeans to couture, homeware, hotels, restaurants, beauty, even flowers. And he had a slew of gorgeous homes in gorgeous places, like Saint-Tropez, where he’d spend July, and the Italian island of Pantelleria, where he’d go in August.

Armani during Paris Fashion Week this past January. The courtly billionaire designer transformed Italian fashion while remaining defiantly independent.  Photographer: JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP

But as style expert Dana Thomas recounts, there is far more to his greatness than immense power and wealth. Mr. Armani (it was always Mr. Armani) commanded a level of respect—even reverence—rarely seen in the business. 

SNACKING: A few months ago I reported on the New York dining vibes takeover of London evidenced in restaurants, pizza shops and bagel stores. And that was even before I had the outrageously good cookie now being sold at Tiny Mammoth in Exmouth Market. The NY-style cookie (as the brand labels itself) is baked just enough to be both doughy and crisp-edged, and it’s jammed with chocolate chunks. If you hang out long enough, as I have been known to do, you’ll walk away with a warm cookie that melts in your mouth. 

Tiny Mammoth’s chocolate chip for the win. Photographer: Kate Krader/Bloomberg

DINING AND DRINKING: Even before it became the No. 1 dining room in the UK, London’s Ritz Restaurant was on my hit list, especially after it showed great kindness to my friend and colleague, the late Richard Vines. Now the fairy-tale-like dining room has an over-the-top pricey temptation: a collaboration with Champagne house Laurent Perrier. Chef John Williams’ five-course feast features Dorset crab lavished with caviar and poached Cornish turbot sauced tableside with copious amounts of bubbles for £498 ($673). Richard would have loved it.

Saving elephants, one unforgettable vacation at a time. Photographer: Wayne Lawrence for Bloomberg Businessweek

DONATING: I haven’t run in a while (read: pre-pandemic), but now I’ve put the 12th annual Saving the Elephants 5K and 10K Run/Walk in New York on my calendar in the goals column. It’s an excellent fundraiser for my favorite of animals that supports the Zambezi Elephant Fund. (Zimbabwe is home to the world’s second-largest population of African elephants; let’s all help keep them protected.) This year’s event will take place in Central Park, rain or shine, on Nov. 8. If I make it home for the run, you’ll hear about it.

Source: Indie Bookshops USA

READING: Ben Schott, a former Bloomberg Opinion writer, is one of the great wordsmiths of our time. His new book, Schott’s Significa: An Unexpectedly Essential Guide to Language (Penguin Books; Oct. 7; $35), will make readers stop and think for a delightful minute or two about the terms they throw around every day. It’s also an arsenal of possibilities for future conversations. In the “Double Decanting the Tattle of the Somm” chapter, for instance, readers will learn that a “speed bump” is wine drunk while a second bottle is being opened up.

And if you read just one thing ...