Overhead view of assorted fried foods including chicken, fries, burgers, and wings on wooden table with dipping sauces and beverages
Work
Case study

The Bronx Public.

A Bronx institution that stopped renting its reservations.

  • Website
  • Custom Reservations
  • Email System
The place

A neighborhood institution at 170 West 231st Street in Kingsbridge, the Bronx — the kind of place where the bar knows your name and game day fills every table.

What they had

The book lived on someone else's shelf.

Their reservations ran through a third-party system. Booking requests landed in a list that nobody could run the floor from; guests waited for answers; and the restaurant's own website couldn't take a booking at all. Every reservation also carried the platform's economics — the restaurant renting access to its own guests.

What we built

A reservation system on the restaurant's own website.

  • Guests pick their actual table on the restaurant's real floor plan — 18 tables — or send a request the house arranges.
  • The host stand runs the night: hosts sign in with their own logins and work Requests, Tonight, the Calendar, the Floor, the Waitlist and House settings — approving a request in one tap.
  • Every guest email is automatic, from the restaurant's own address — reservations@bronxpublic.com: the confirmation, any change, a cancellation — and a reminder the day before.
  • Occasions and special requests travel with the booking, so the host sees them right on the reservation.
  • When a time is full, the guest is offered the nearest open times instead of a dead end.
  • Parties of 11 or more are arranged by the house, personally.
  • The bookings guests had already made in the old system were carried over, so nobody lost their table.
  • A table card we designed carries a QR to the menu and a QR straight to a Google review.

See it live:bronxpublic.com

Five colorful cocktails arranged on a bar counter with a blurred background of bottles and shelves.
Plated seafood dish with golden curry sauce, topped with edible flowers and vegetables, surrounded by appetizers and drinks on a table
Why it matters

The guests are the restaurant's.

  • No per-cover fees, ever.
  • No platform standing between the restaurant and its guests.
  • The guest list belongs to the restaurant.
  • One flat arrangement instead of a monthly rental that grows with every cover.

Most reservation platforms charge monthly rent plus per-diner fees.

The details
Client
The Bronx Public
Location
Kingsbridge, The Bronx
Services
Website, Custom Reservation System, Guest Email, Website Care
Status
Live