Carbone is an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village that serves $47 linguini vongole to guests like Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna. It is not a place where mere mortals score same-day dinner reservations.<\/p>\n
Yet on Wednesday afternoon, there were two prime-time seats available in the Resy app for that very evening. Tables were also available at Eleven Madison Park, Tatiana and Don Angie \u2014 all restaurants that tend to inspire practically gladiatorial competition<\/a> for reservations.<\/p>\n The catch? Every last morsel of crispy okra or buffalo milk caramelle would conflict with Game 4 of the N.B.A. finals.<\/p>\n New York City has been electrified by the Knicks\u2019 championship series against the San Antonio Spurs, a historic run that continued Wednesday night with an astonishing comeback victory in the game\u2019s final minutes. And while thousands of fans are packing viewing parties<\/a> where they can watch Jalen Brunson sink step-back threes, other New Yorkers are jockeying for some of the city\u2019s most competitive tables.<\/p>\n Open seats at 4 Charles Prime Rib, Wild Cherry and other places seem to be getting snapped up more slowly than usual, said Tarek Arafat, the chief executive of TableOne, a reservation-alert service. And last-minute cancellations had ticked upward for tables in the 8-10 p.m. slot \u2014 otherwise known as game time.<\/p>\n \u201cTraditionally, these reservations would fly off the shelf almost immediately,\u201d Arafat said.<\/p>\n Though overall reservations on N.B.A. finals game days are up in New York from last year, bookings at the city\u2019s most award-winning restaurants \u2014 those with Michelin stars or James Beard awards, for example \u2014 have not seen the same surge, according to the platform OpenTable.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just fine dining. On Friday, Bianca Salcedo, a 25-year-old who lives in Brooklyn, was shocked<\/a> to see that the line of people waiting to buy ice cream at Caff\u00e8 Panna in Greenpoint was just a couple of people long. Typically, it wraps around the block.<\/p>\n She ordered the mango sticky rice flavor, then watched the Knicks win Game 2 at a nearby bar. \u201cI kind of scored twice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n During Game 4, we visited several of the city\u2019s most in-demand restaurants and found diners having better-than-usual luck getting tables.<\/p>\n 6:47 p.m.<\/p>\n Semma<\/p>\n At the South Indian restaurant Semma, a little under two hours before tip-off, Mia Seymour stood behind a velvet rope that didn\u2019t seem to be needed. \u201cWe almost didn\u2019t come tonight because of the game \u2014 it was close,\u201d said Seymour, 25, an investment banker who was dining with co-workers. She was surprised that they had been able to nab a six-person reservation.<\/p>\n Aadit Bhatia and Aurrel Bhatia, above, who had booked their table a day earlier, were just wrapping up their meal. \u201cIt was fire,\u201d said Aadit, a 21-year-old Celtics fan who lives in Boston.<\/p>\n At 4 Charles Prime Rib, a steakhouse in the West Village, waiters delivered burgers topped with fat slabs of bacon. All nine of the restaurant\u2019s tables were full, said Ian Andrews, who was checking guests in on an iPad and peeking occasionally at a TV in the window of a sports bar across the street. A man in a Knicks hat and jeans approached and asked if he could be added to the wait list. \u201cYou\u2019re number 17,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n 7:26 p.m.<\/p>\n Via Carota<\/p>\n The streets of the West Village were packed with Jalen Brunson jerseys and young people trying to set up projectors. A couple dining outside at Via Carota had brought along their 5-month-old, who was dressed in a blue-and-orange Knicks onesie. They had put their names down for a table about an hour earlier, and had lucked out. Their tagliatelle was on its way. \u201cIt\u2019s slow tonight,\u201d said Juan Ramirez, who was busing tables.<\/p>\n 7:39 p.m.<\/p>\n Wild Cherry<\/p>\n There was no wait for two seats at the bar at Wild Cherry, the buzzy restaurant<\/a> inside A24\u2019s Cherry Lane Theater. \u201cWe\u2019re usually a lot busier right now,\u201d said Aydin Canel, a bartender who grew up a Houston Rockets fan. Shaking a vodka martini, he said he expected to be able to tell how the game was going from the energy in the room. When the scheduled tip-off arrived at 8:30 p.m., however, no one picked up their phones.<\/p>\n 8:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Ha\u2019s Snack Bar<\/p>\n The eight-seat bar at Ha\u2019s Snack Bar on the Lower East Side was nearly empty. As patrons sipped wine and slurped oysters, four cooks caught glimpses of the game on a laptop that was resting on a shelf in the open kitchen. \u201cWe\u2019re down,\u201d one of them said, pouring fish sauce over a tub of pork ribs.<\/p>\n Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village was practically obscured by the line of Knicks fans waiting to get into Off the Wagon, a sports bar down the block. One of the fans took a bite of his turkey sandwich. \u201cIf you\u2019re smart, you\u2019d walk into a place like this \u2014 you won\u2019t have to wait long,\u201d said Jimmy Antoine, above, a manager at the tavern.<\/p>\n The restaurant was not showing the game, so Kobe Cuprill, 25, a security guard, pulled it up on his iPhone. The Knicks were down in the first quarter, and Karl-Anthony Towns was already in foul trouble. Cuprill was choosing to stay positive. \u201cWe\u2019re coming back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 9:37 P.M.<\/p>\n Theodora<\/p>\n By the second quarter, hundreds of people had gathered to watch the game projected onto the wall of a building in Brooklyn\u2019s Fort Greene neighborhood, where Spike Lee<\/a> has been known to parade around after a Knicks win. There were groans when Josh Hart missed a free throw and limp cheers when Brunson made one. It was a relatively quiet night at Theodora, a Mediterranean restaurant where dinner lines often start before 5 p.m.<\/p>\n Bo Hamby, a manager there, was not that worked up about missing the game. \u201cMake sure you note that I\u2019m a Dodgers and Lakers fan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trevor Edwards had waited up until midnight a few weeks earlier to secure a reservation at Bong, a Cambodian restaurant in Crown Heights. He was not willing to give it up, even though he is a die-hard Knicks fan. \u201cI\u2019m a little bit superstitious,\u201d said Edwards, 36, a consultant. He and Ashaki Nehisi, 33, who works in tech, were watching the game on an iPhone between plates of fried dorade and salt-and-pepper shrimp.<\/p>\n The Knicks were trailing, but it wasn\u2019t over yet. \u201cI\u2019m keeping my fingers crossed,\u201d Nehisi said.<\/p>\n She was right not to give up hope. An hour later, fans streamed out of sports bars and upscale restaurants alike to celebrate in the streets<\/a>. The Knicks had won it, 107-106.<\/p>\n Christopher Calabrese contributed reporting.<\/p>\n