If you want a table at Lucali, you’ve got to wait — or hire someone to do it for you.
The acclaimed Carroll Gardens pizzeria — which is cash-only, BYOB, doesn’t take reservations and is beloved by celebs such as Jay-Z and Beyonce — tops the list of a recent report from TaskRabbit on the most popular restaurants in the city for hiring Taskers to wait for a table.
After Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dined there in September, requests for line-waiters at the pizza hotspot went up 30%, according to a TaskRabbit spokesperson.
“The most popular request by far is for reservations at Lucali,” a Tasker who goes by Tanya B on the platform told The Post. She charges $20 an hour to line up and has waited as long as three hours at the pizzeria.
“I’ve been hired multiple times to wait there,” added another Tasker, Collins B, who says his average Lucali job lasts three hours.
Lesa Raab, a 42-year-old NYC publicist, hired a Tasker from TaskRabbit to queue for her at Lucali last month. She wanted a four-top table at 6:30 p.m.
The Tasker waited two hours, charged her $65, and Raab said, “he got us exactly that.”
In the past Raab tried to wait in line herself and failed.
“My boyfriend and I previously tried to go in the spring on a day we were able to log off work a bit early, and even though we showed up and waited in line for almost an hour, we weren’t able to get a table,” she said. “We noticed that several of the people must be paid line waiters, and we decided then that when we tried it again, that would be our move.”
She now recommends this trick to all her friends. “I have referred the gentleman who waited for us so they can do the same,” she said.
(The Post has reached out to Lucali for comment)
The other restaurants in the top 5 for TaskRabbit hires are Kisa, a Korean diner on the Lower East Side; Double Chicken Please, a downtown cocktail bar serving eclectic chicken sandwiches; the Italian classic Emilio’s Ballato on Houston and the twee West Village trattoria Via Carota.
The latter is a semi-regular destination for Swift, who has a nearby home on Cornelia Street. And, the pop star also had a girls’ night at Emilio’s Ballato in the fall of 2023 with Sophia Turner, Brittany Mahomes, Blake Lively and Lively’s older sister Robyn.
TaskRabbit said its Taskers are increasingly being hired, not to hang TVs and put together IKEA furniture, but to just stand around. Requests to wait in line in New York City were up 56% in October, compared to September. Nationally, TaskRabbit has seen an 18% increase in demand for line-waiters in the past year.
For Taskers, it’s relatively easy money.
“It is definitely the category that keeps me the most busy,” said Tanya B. Aside from Lucali, she’s also waited at the sushi spot SUGARFISH in Midtown and the trendy Italian-American Don Angie in the West Village.
Collins B said he makes as much as $2,000 a month from waiting in lines at restaurants, sample sales and the like. Business is especially brisk from October to December with the holidays.
“This particular service appeals to me because it doesn’t require any specialized skills other than patience, which is a quality I’ve always possessed,” he said.
Still, it isn’t without its challenges.
“One of the most common issues is people trying to cut the line,” he said. He’s also had to master notifying clients at the right time so that they can seamlessly meet and switch places.
Tanya B has also picked up some tricks along the way.
She always wears comfortable shoes and dresses in layers so she’s prepared for changing weather. A rain jacket, umbrella, portable stool, water and plenty of snacks are also essential.
On nearly every waiting job, she encounters other professional line waiters, some of whom use nasty tricks to secure tables.
“Not everybody follows the rules of etiquette and fairness like Taskers do, so sometimes you have to be stealthy,” she said. “I won’t divulge all the methods I use to ensure I get and keep my coveted place in line for my clients. But it works.”
