#reservations

#reservations

Digitization has not only transformed how we shop, travel, and communicate, but it has also completely redefined the way we eat out. In an industry that has long been driven by tradition and personal touch, the shift toward automation and efficiency tools is now impossible to ignore. Restaurants of every size, from small family-owned bistros to high-end dining chains, are recognizing that their survival and growth depend on adapting to a more tech-driven environment.

In 2008, Anthony Bourdain filmed a sequence of his show "No Reservations" at Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat sushi restaurant in the basement of a Tokyo office building. After 15 courses of single-bite nigiri sushi from the restaurant's owner and much-celebrated chef Jiro Ono, Bourdain seemed to achieve nirvana. As Bourdain narrates, the fish and rice are served at room temperature, which Ono believes captures the purest essence and beauty of the fish.

California's several hundred parks feature some of the most beautiful wilderness in the country, many within a few hours drive of Berkeley. But reserving a campground can be unduly challenging. The state and national parks reservations websites are so popular that you often have to make reservations six months in advance, or more for holiday weekends or popular destinations. And you're competing with the San Francisco coders, who crawl the sites to notify them of cancellations and book open spots.