{"id":144530,"date":"2026-02-25T04:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144530\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:11:10","slug":"one-of-jfk-jr-s-favorite-nyc-restaurants-is-still-nearly-impossible-to-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144530\/","title":{"rendered":"One Of JFK Jr.’s Favorite NYC Restaurants Is Still Nearly Impossible To Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

While some Michelin-starred restaurants require booking months in advance, other establishments operate on a different kind of reservation strategy. At Rao’s, limited seating and a principle known as “table rights” makes securing a spot for dinner close to impossible. It’s\u00a0one of the\u00a0hardest places to get reservations in NYC<\/a>\u00a0and has attracted its share of celebrities and stars over the years. For example,\u00a0JFK Jr. was known to bike from his apartment in Tribeca to the East Harlem haunt, where southern Italian cooking has delighted visitors for more than a century.<\/p>\n

The original New York City location has just\u00a010 tables, and many of these seats have been reserved for decades. The concept of table rights was established to honor original patrons and community members. The restaurant has remained family-run for generations, and, according to its current owner, these table rights belong to those who supported the restaurant from the start.\u00a0With most tables already spoken for, that leaves only a handful open for reservations.<\/p>\n

Read more: 14 US Presidents And Their Favorite Decadent Desserts<\/a><\/p>\n

Rao’s has delivered over a century of stories and service\"Rao's<\/p>\n

Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem – Bob Rossicone\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

In 1896, Charles Rao purchased a small saloon in Upper Manhattan and named it Rao’s. The restaurant become known for its lemon chicken recipe\u00a0and meatballs, but it was the atmosphere of the place that kept visitors returning. Family recipes have helped craft authentic dishes that\u00a0delighted even New York Times food critics. Baked clams, penne vodka, and herb-speckled roasted red peppers reward those who manage to land a table, but, beyond the food, the stories that envelop this place hold just as much appeal.<\/p>\n

Celebrities and politicians\u00a0alike have dined at Rao’s, and those\u00a0who are lucky enough to score reservations rave about the experience. “Rao’s food is where you try it and you’re GENUINELY blown away by the flavors,” wrote a fan on YouTube<\/a>. With photos lining the walls and linens covering tables, this is the kind of place where history seeps into every corner \u2014 and where the atmosphere was once described by Eater<\/a> as closer to that of a wedding reception than a restaurant. Rao’s now also boasts establishments in L.A. and Miami, in addition to a line-up of products like jarred pasta sauces<\/a> and frozen dinners<\/a>:\u00a0These should appease anyone wanting a taste who doesn’t hold the connections to score a spot at the original restaurant. Rao’s in East Harlem remains highly exclusive to this day, and the same appeal that had a Kennedy cycling uptown remains as enduring as ever.<\/p>\n

Want more food knowledge? Sign up to our free newsletter<\/a> where we’re helping thousands of foodies, like you, become culinary masters, one email at a time. You can also add us as a preferred search source<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on Tasting Table<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While some Michelin-starred restaurants require booking months in advance, other establishments operate on a different kind of reservation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60609,6808,60606,60608,9,56,63,65,64,60607],"class_list":{"0":"post-144530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-charles-rao","9":"tag-east-harlem","10":"tag-jfk-jr","11":"tag-michelin-starred-restaurants","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-reservations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}