Restaurants Serve Up Net Reservations.

Thanks to a sudden push of online reservation services in L.A., Angelenos will find it much easier to make restaurant reservations by computer, and restaurants will be able to keep much better track of their customers.

Companies like OpenTable.com and Foodline.com are ramping up operations in Los Angeles in their battle to become the dominant online, reservations service. Both companies are currently signing up restaurants, as well as partnering with city-oriented Web companies like Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc.

For its reservation service, CitySearch partnered with Foodline.com, which has offices in L.A., San Francisco, Boston and New York. After making its West Coast debut in Seattle, because the city is smaller and more manageable, Foodline is planning a major expansion here.

"We just did our first restaurant signings in L.A.," said Deirdre Lightfoot, previously a local sales manager who now trains restaurants to use Foodline's services.

Caf[acute{e}] des Artistes and Mimosa Caf[acute{e}] in Los Angeles, Dal Rae in Pico Rivera, and The Bungalow in Corona del Mar are the restaurants currently featured on Foodline.com.

"We've got a number that are going live soon," said Paul Lightfoot, a Claremont native who founded Foodline.com and now serves as the company's president and chief executive (he and Deirdre are cousins). "There's Tommy Tang's and Melrose, and we've got a whole lot of momentum."

How it works

Online reservation systems are fairly easy for consumers to navigate. Just punch in parameters like neighborhood, type of food and price range, and the computer will return the restaurants that fit those parameters. Pick the place and time, and a confirmation will be sent back once the restaurant makes sure it has an open table.

Highly regarded California French restaurant JiRaffe in Santa Monica recently signed a deal with Foodline's main competitor, San Francisco-based Open Table.com.

"There's not a tremendous amount (of online reservations) yet, but I think there will be as more people learn about it," said Chris Schaefer, general manager at JiRaffe.

JiRaffe is one of the more tech-savvy local restaurants. In addition to signing with OpenTable, it has installed its own Internet-connected computer system facilitating online reservations. The system also allows JiRaffe to maintain customer profiles, for its own internal use.

"It keeps a database of everyone that dines here, so whenever anyone makes a reservation, we can see how many reservations they've made, how many times they don't show up, how many times they've called and canceled," Schaefer said. "It has brought to our attention a few individuals who make reservations and frequently do not show up."

Frequent cancelers get calls back from the restaurant to make sure they really intend to show, and for real problem customers, the restaurant will overbook on the assumption that he or she isn't going to show.

OpenTable currently boasts about two dozen L.A. restaurants as clients, including JiRaffe, L'Orangerie and Melisse. "You can make reservations 24 hours a day. The restaurant doesn't have to be open," said OpenTable spokeswoman Regan Daniels.

To participate in online reservations and get the internal management services offered by OpenTable and Foodline, a restaurant must pay an initial fee of about $500 to create a customized service, then sign a monthly lease for a touch-screen computer, an Internet connection, and ongoing support and upgrades. The monthly cost is around $100.

Reserving by Palm Pilot

By touting the customer management features and convincing restaurants to participate, Foodline and OpenTable will be poised to capture potential reservation-makers when handheld wireless devices with Internet access become more prevalent.

"In a couple of years, online reservations will probably be enormous," Paul Lightfoot said.

Not everyone is so sure.

"I like calling up the restaurant and finding out what the options are for tables and so forth," said Merrill Shindler, restaurant critic with the Zagat Survey. "Also, it has been observed that in L.A. there really are no more than two dozen restaurants where you need a reservation. You can walk into an awful lot and don't need them, outside of a Matsuhisa or a Spago."

L.A.'s more laid-back attitude is different than that of other cities, where it can be next to impossible to even reach the reservation desk, and then callers can be put on hold for ages.

"That doesn't happen in Los Angeles," Shindler said. "Bottom line, the jury's still out (on online reservation services)."

As evidenced by JiRaffe, restaurants -- not diners -- may benefit most from the computer service.

"It will instantly recognize who your important customers are, so if your regular dinner host has the night off, your new dinner host has access to all the same information. You know who they are, you know who they want to serve them, you know what wine they want waiting on the table," Daniels said. "Restaurants have told us that's what keeps customers coming back."