For $35 - $45 per reservation, PrimeTimeTables can get you a same-day reservations at “highly demanded” restaurants like L’Atelier de Jöel Robuchon, Eleven Madison Park, the Modern, and Blue Hill. Eater has done all of the due dilly, including quotes from several in PR and the food industry:

“We have created a system that allows business people who cannot plan in advance but need access to last minute reservations at what we call “prime time” (7 to 9pm) at some of the finest and most popular restaurants.” (PrimeTimeTables)

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“It reminds me of the 80s when you waited on line and hoped to be chosen to enter a nightclub – that was inevitably empty inside anyway. I always said that if you were fat and ugly you shouldn’t even bother going out as you’d never get selected. This is the same thing. not only is lying to get reservations a sin, but the fact that you have to pay is disgusting.” (Anon PR person to Eater)

I think what it comes down to (and I have not used this service, and probably will not) is that it really is a world of the have and have-nots, so what’s the use pretending anymore? I intepret this phenomenon as neither a good thing or a bad thing, but just the market getting more efficient. If there’s too much demand for these restaurants, then they can either increase their capacity or up the price point. What this seems to be is someone else upping the price point because the restaurateurs don’t want to, possibly because they want to keep up some kind of notion that they actually are accessible to the public, even though they’re not.

Food can only get so good, so let people pay through the roof if they want to.

Updated: The NYT reports that more than 1,000 people have applied for the service, as well as some insight as to why exactly those tables are so hard to get: more than half of the spots at the top restaurants are already out of reach before they’re open to reservations — tables are reserved for friends & investors,  American Express cardholders and hotel concierges, among others.