{"id":388861,"date":"2026-07-28T09:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388861\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:44:08","slug":"whos-driving-houston-is-first-to-test-opentables-new-designated-driver-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388861\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Driving? Houston Is First to Test OpenTable\u2019s New Designated Driver Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Houston, making a dinner reservation now comes with one more question: Who\u2019s driving? The city is the first in the country to test a <a href=\"https:\/\/us.heineken.opentable.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new OpenTable feature<\/a> that lets diners choose a designated driver while booking a table, thanks to a new pilot program from Heineken USA and OpenTable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning Friday, July 31, diners who book through a dedicated OpenTable experience at 10 participating Houston restaurants can assign a designated driver during the reservation process. After completing a pre-experience survey, entrants can opt in for a chance to win a $25 gift card to purchase Heineken 0.0 for their night out, and select designated drivers may also receive a $100 SafeRides.org voucher after completing a post-experience survey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pilot runs each weekend through Sunday, October 4 at participating Federal American Grill locations in Downtown, Shepherd, Katy and River Oaks, Goode Company Seafood locations in Memorial and Westpark, Good and Co. Kitchen &amp; Cantina in the Heights, Morton\u2019s Houston Downtown, Morton\u2019s Houston Galleria and Truluck\u2019s Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The partnership is part of Heineken\u2019s \u201cThere\u2019s No Such Thing As Fine to Drive\u201d campaign, which aims to encourage diners to plan a safe ride home before heading out. The company says Houston was chosen for the inaugural pilot after local survey results found that 74 percent of Houstonians would be more likely to make a transportation plan if prompted while booking a reservation. The survey also found that 34 percent had underestimated how intoxicated they were until they were already behind the wheel, while 36 percent admitted they had driven after drinking because they believed they were the \u201cmost sober\u201d person in the group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reservations can be made through the dedicated <a href=\"https:\/\/us.heineken.opentable.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OpenTable experience<\/a> beginning July 31. The pilot is open to diners 21 and older and includes participating restaurants across Houston through October 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpress.com\/author\/brooke-viggiano\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Viggiano_Brooke_Houston-120x120.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrooke Viggiano is a contributing writer who is always looking to share Houston&#8217;s coolest and tastiest happenings with the Houston Press readers.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpress.com\/author\/brooke-viggiano\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Brooke Viggiano\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Houston, making a dinner reservation now comes with one more question: Who\u2019s driving? The city is the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[71742,137033,137034,56,59824,112459,58,57,62050,14118,14623,1623,111542],"class_list":["post-388861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-dd","tag-designated-drivers","tag-drive-safely","tag-houston","tag-houston-dining","tag-houston-food-news","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-nightlife","tag-houston-restaurants","tag-opentable","tag-restaurant-news","tag-safe-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}