The 1 hr wait and outdoor dining?

Angie and I stopped in a new steakhouse in New York last night just after 8 o'clock to find a one hour wait for a table. At first I thought it was a conspiracy as the hosts looked quite familiar to me, almost like those guests that just stop in for a bite and are disappointed to find a wait for a table. Honestly, it wasn't that bad, we struck up conversation with a Chilean wine exporter who had just been in Milwaukee two weeks ago and met a NYTimes reporter doing a story on cocktails. The hosts were courteous in letting us know when we were getting close to our time and it helped to ease the pain of the wait. All in all it was a nice refresher for what its like to wait and how it should and should not be be handled.

One more thing, we were STUNNED to find people still eating outdoors this weekend. That, ontop of how packed in people are willing to be in NY when dining out was quite surprising.