Some people can try for years to get a reservation at New York’s hottest restaurants. Alex Eisler will make several a day and does not plan on keeping any of them.
Eisler is one of an army of “scalpers” who have helped to create an underground market for securing tables at some of the most sought-after spots in town.
The undergraduate student in applied maths and computer science at Brown University wakes up early to trawl restaurant and reservation websites using different phone numbers and email addresses. Sometimes he uses more old-fashioned methods, calling them on the phone with various fake aliases.
Alex Eisler made more than $1,000 for a reservation at the “see-and-be-seen” Carbone
ALAMY
He then lists his haul on the online marketplace AppointmentTrader, where people can bid on his reservations. On any one day Eisler might
