Did You Know? In New York, Queueing For a Restaurant Has Become a Real Job

Pouring rain, freezing cold or stifling heat, it makes no difference: weather conditions are superfluous for those who "work" by queuing. It's all true, you read correctly, in New York there are people who have a job queuing for others outside restaurants. This is a new, all-American trend where many freelancers, to secure a sum of money, "endure" all this in place of the lucky customer, who will calmly sit at the table without wasting even a minute in line.

Everything is Possible Thanks to a Web Platform

To avoid having to wait in endless lines for hours and, sometimes, not even be able to sit down at a restaurant, some customers have decided to pay people to wait in line for them. To make this happen, as revealed by the New York Post, there is a web platform called Taskrabbit. This technological idea is used by freelancers here in the U.S. who are looking for work in the most diverse sectors: from house cleaning to moving. The service costs about 20 dollars an hour and, according to those who need to "avoid" the line, it is well spent. Those responsible for Taskrabbit told the New York newspaper that workers registered on the platform are increasingly in demand. These come not for moving, cleaning or other household tasks, but specifically to wait in line at restaurants. The trend exploded in October 2024, when requests  on Taskrabbit increased by 56%, and by 18% for the whole of 2024.

Some workers claim to earn up to two thousand dollars a month thanks to the tasks offered by this platform. The strong point is that you don't need specific skills or uniqueness to carry out these tasks. The first thing required to stand in line is in fact patience. A woman, interviewed by the New York Post, explained that the "tools of the trade" to fill the time in line at the restaurant are a pair of comfortable shoes, layered clothing, an umbrella, a portable stool and a reserve of water and food.

Lucali, The Restaurant Promoting the Trend

It's called Lucali, by Mark Iacono, and it's a very famous Italian restaurant in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. This is the place that "launched" the trend of waiting in line. Usually the wait times before sitting down at a table for this place are over three hours. Lucali does not accept telephone reservations at all. Its specialties are pizza margherita, pizza pepperoni, calzones and various pasta dishes. Even though it opened in 2006, it began to gain media attention after a visit by stars such as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and Beyoncé and Jay Z. So to avoid waiting in line, some Lucali customers decided to rely on Taskrabbit and "hire" people to wait in line for them. It seems like a brilliant idea so, if you are about to go to the New York and you plan to eat at the best restaurants, remember to use this innovative web platform and you will not waste even a minute in line.