I'm from South Australia, so when I'm near exceptionally popular restaurants, it's usually while travelling so I have a fixed window and won't usually have locked that window in until a week or two beforehand.

And the reason I hate calling is that I imagine I'm one of a string of no-chance hopefuls just being a nuisance. And the staff are on the other end thinking "Doesn't this guy know who we are?! You're two months late, bozo."

Would love a web-based system to get around all this!

(Only been to Chicago once and quite liked it despite the weather at that time of year. We enjoyed Avec and The Violet Hour. Had a chance to go to Moto but bailed in the end.)