The Freedom, ME, restaurant that recently switched to a mail-only reservation system has been flooded with seating requests.
The Lost Kitchen has received more than 10,000 notecards from hopeful diners since April 1, when the restaurant began accepting reservation requests through the mail.
Owner Erin French switched to the mail-only system after receiving thousands of phone requests on the day reservations opened last year.
“I think she made it easier on everybody, believe it or not, by going old school,” Michael Dutton, the restaurant’s spokesman, told the Bangor Daily News.
Restaurant staffers are randomly selecting would-be patrons.
“The pick is just literally reaching into a bucket and pulling a card out,” said Dutton. “If you get picked, you get called.”
Chances of getting a table haven’t improved with the new system.
Only 5,000 people are expected to be accommodated during the restaurant’s open season, which runs from mid-May through New Year’s Eve.
“It’s still an odd’s game,” Dutton told the Portland Press Herald.
The restaurant’s Facebook fans approve.
Wrote one: “Even if I don’t get a call this year, I’ll try again next year. I love that Erin and her team went to this ‘old-fashioned’ … mail system. It fits the whole feeling of this special place perfectly!”