Resy Expands Brand Programming with Reveal of 2020 Events Lineup

The Reservations Platform Doubles Down On Its Mission To Connect Chefs and Diners – Not Only Through Its Technology – But Through Resy-Curated Experiences

NEW YORK CITY (Wednesday, January 22, 2020) — Resy, the NYC-based and American Express owned  reservations platform that powers many of the world’s best restaurants, shares plans to expand its popular events and experiential programming in 2020. The continued push into programming is part of Resy’s mission to more intimately connect diners and restaurants, and to provide a thoughtful and human lens into the world of restaurants.

“In the early aughts, diners were obsessed with where their food was coming from; now they want to know where the chef is coming from: their point of view, their passions, their personalities. As we enter this next decade of dining, we believe that Resy is uniquely positioned to deliver the kind of dialogue-driven restaurant experiences that diners crave, and that restaurants are eager to create,” says Resy CEO Ben Leventhal.

“Resy is a brand for people who love to dine out,” says Resy CMO Victoria Vaynberg. “Our technology product will always be our core, but our platform is a destination for restaurant discovery, a resource for restaurant intel, a curator of culinary experiences. Resy events are a great example of what makes our brand unique, and the kind of value we will increasingly bring to our users.”

In 2020, Resy will debut several new-for-2020 events including Konbi at NYC’s Golden Diner – a Resy-exclusive pop-up featuring LA’s megahit Japanese cafe, named Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurant of 2019 (February); Resy Summer Cinema – a summer dinner and a movie series, featuring picnics by some of the country’s top chefs (August); Legacy – a brand new series paying homage to cities’ culinary institutions; and more. See RESY’S 2020 EVENTS LINEUP below. 

Resy also announces today the expansion of its banner programs Off Menu Week and Women Of Food. Throughout 2020, Resy’s signature dining program – Off Menu Week – will travel to 9 US cities: LA, Atlanta, Charleston, Austin, Washington, DC, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Houston. For one week in each city, top chefs will go off script and treat diners to never-before-seen dishes, because Resy knows that nothing beats feeling like an insider. Off Menu Week LA kicks off the 2020 tour from Monday, February 24, 2020 through Sunday, March 1, 2020. The Women Of Food – Resy’s platform spotlighting trailblazing women in hospitality – will cover 11 cities in 2020, with events throughout March (International Women’s Month) and April.

Since launching events in 2017, Resy has collaborated with Dave Chang, Dominique Crenn, Sean Brock, Curtis Stone, Missy Robbins, and countless more to give diners a front-row-seat to top culinary talent. At The Franks’ Backyard Chef Series, hosted by Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, guests have mingled with internationally acclaimed chefs (Enrique Olvera, Mauro Colagreco, Iñaki Aizpitarte, Lee Tiernan) as they prepare interpretations of cookout fare; at one of Danny Bowien’s Secret Special dinners, guests were treated to a surprise performance by rock band Saves The Day, with Bowien jumping out of the kitchen and into the musical set; in kitchens around the country, the leading ladies of the restaurant world used Resy’s Women Of Food platform to speak out against gender inequality in the industry and strengthen the #womenoffood community; Resy hit the road with New York Times bestselling cookbook author Alison Roman to power her 7-city Nothing Fancy cookbook tour at restaurants around the country; and in its inaugural year, Resy’s roving Off Menu Week dining program traversed the country, bringing 50,000+ diners in to participating restaurants.

“Working with Resy enabled us to create a special experience for our guests, and they created a stellar lineup of dinners that we were proud to be a part of. The Resy team was so dynamic and supportive throughout the process as we brought our vision to life,” said Margot Henderson, Chef-Owner of Rochelle Canteen in London.

RESY 2020 EVENTS LINEUP

Additional events to be announced. Full details at blog.resy.com/newsroom. All Resy events include exclusive early access for American Express® Card Members. Diners who have an American Express® Card on file in their Resy wallet will get to book reservations and purchase tickets 48 hours before they become available to the general public.

NEW FOR 2020

RESY PRESENTS: KONBI LA POP-UP AT GOLDEN DINER (February 24 and February 25, 2020)
LA megahit Konbi – the Japanese daytime cafe named Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurant of 2019 – will bring its Insta-famous egg salad and pork katsu sandos to NYC’s own venerable Golden Diner for a limited edition pop-up with Resy. For two days only, New Yorkers will be able to exclusively reserve the Konbi experience. 

RESY SUMMER CINEMA (August 1, 8, 15 and 22)  

This August, Resy heads East for RESY SUMMER CINEMA, a summer dinner and a movie series featuring picnics by some of the country’s top chefs. Mark your calendars for the first four Saturdays in August as Resy brings dinner to the beautiful lawns of Nova’s Ark in Watermill, New York. 

LEGACY (dates to be announced)

Every city has “that” iconic food spot, beloved by locals and visited by tourists alike. These restaurants are institutions: layered with history, time capsules of culture, and inseparable from the city itself. In 2020, Resy will debut ‘Legacy,’ a brand new series that pairs a city’s most beloved chef with the city’s most famous food spot to pay culinary tribute.

MARGOT HENDERSON’S SUMMER BBQ SERIES AT ROCHELLE CANTEEN (June, July, August)

This summer Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold will offer up their ivy-covered and eternally lovely backyard at Rochelle Canteen for a summer BBQ series that’s sure to become a summer staple. The Canteen, which sits in the converted bike shed of the old Rochelle School, will fire up the grills for a 3-part BBQ series featuring chef-friends from around the world. 

RESY PRESENTS: ASMA KHAN COOKS IN NYC (dates to be announced)

London’s beloved chef Asma Khan (of Darjeeling Express, featured on Chef’s Table Season 6) will travel to NYC for the first time in 35 years for a very special supper series. Resy – like the rest of London – fell in love with the Calcutta-born chef’s incredibly personal and utterly delicious Indian cooking in 2019, when Khan hosted a sold-out Women Of Food dinner. When the chef expressed her interest in cooking in New York – for the first time ever – it was an instant ‘YES!’

RESY BANNER PROGRAMS, EXPANDING FOR 2020

OFF MENU WEEK: Resy’s signature dining program, presented by American Express
(9 US cities, throughout 2020)

Off Menu Week – called “A Newer, Better Restaurant Week” by Bloomberg” – boasts an expanded national footprint for 2020, with the addition of Atlanta, Houston and Charleston to its 9-city lineup. Resy’s signature dining program, which debuted in 2019 and sat 50,000+ diners, promises exclusive eats dreamed up by the world’s greatest restaurants.  For one week in each participating city, Off Menu Week gives diners the chance to get to know the restaurants they love, as chefs go off script and serve never before seen dishes inspired by personal passions, family heritage, formative food memories, family meal, and more. Every order is original, every dish is a discovery; every menu maps a journey; every morsel is a memory. Off Menu Week kicks off in Los Angeles from February 24th – March 1st (reservations open for American Express Card Members on January 22nd at 10am local time; reservations open to the general public on January 24th at 10am local time). Full details at resy.com/offmenuweek.

WOMEN OF FOOD: Giving voice to trailblazing women in the restaurant world. (10 US cities + London, throughout March + April)

Throughout March – International Women’s Month – and April, Resy’s Women Of Food series will return for its third year in a row to raise the voices of women in the restaurant world. The series was born out of an urgent need to shift the status quo of the culinary establishment and shine light on the fact that women are still grossly underrepresented in the industry. The 2020 tour will be inspired by a theme of dedication, and critically acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs in 11 cities — including NYC’s Jess Shaboldt, Clare DeBoer and Anni Shi (KING), LA’s Mei Lin (Nightshade), Seattle’s Renee Erickson (Bistro Shirlee, Walrus & The Carpenter), Chicago’s Sarah Grunenberg (Monteverde), DC’s Rose Previte (Maydan, Compass Rose) and more — will host one-night-only events dedicated to a female they are inspired by; honorees may be a mentor, an advocate, an iconic female hero they wish they could cook for, a family member, or a rising female chef in the industry. In addition to the ticketed events, Resy will invite all restaurants around the country to share a dedication to a woman they admire. Tickets on sale mid-February, at resy.com/womenoffood.

RETURNING RESY PRESENTS SERIES

RESY PRESENTS: SECRET SPECIAL, WITH DANNY BOWIEN AND FRIENDS — (NYC, February 11 and March 10, 2020)

Resy teamed up with Danny Bowien, the creative mastermind behind Mission Chinese Food, to unleash the chef’s dream dinner series. Under Bowien’s culinary guidance, the chef’s creative industry-crossing creative friends—musicians, artists, actors—conceptualize special dishes to be presented at monthly dinner parties and served alongside Mission Chinese Food staples. Lineup at resy.com/missionchinese.

RESY PRESENTS: THE FRANKS’ BACKYARD CHEF SERIES, SEASON 4 — (NYC, May – September; lineup to be announced)
A summer classic! Host chefs and Brooklyn pioneers Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli welcome their chef-friends of international renown to Frankies 457, in Carroll Gardens, to stage creative, laid-back cookouts.

ABOUT RESY

Resy connects the world’s best guests with the world’s best restaurants at digital scale through its superior reservation management software and consumer-facing restaurant reservation platform. Since its inception in 2014, Resy has revolutionized, elevated and enhanced dining experiences worldwide. 

Resy works exclusively with 4,500+ restaurants globally, seating over 2.8 million diners a week. Resy boasts an industry-low, global no-show rate of approximately 3%. 

Resy’s restaurant partners use ResyOS – a complete restaurant reservations system – to run their businesses smarter and more efficiently. ResyOS includes table management, wait list functionality, ticketing, web and app booking, PCI Level 1 compliant third-party credit card handling, loyalty channel management, POS integration and more. Additionally, ResyOS offers an all-encompassing guest feedback loop, plus a suite of Business Intelligence tools.

Diners around the world use Resy to book and manage reservations at a curated selection of the world’s most distinguished restaurants, from award-winning establishments to neighborhood mainstays. 

Resy was co-founded by Ben Leventhal, co- founder of Eater.com; Michael Montero, co-founder and former CTO of CrowdTwist; and Gary Vaynerchuk, noted social media expert, entrepreneur and investor. Three months after launching The New York Times declared, “Resy [is] striving to become the favored portal” for diners looking to get into the best restaurants. By 2017, Resy was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies; in 2018, an acquisition of a key competitor was called “a big win” by New York Magazine; and in 2019, Resy was acquired by American Express. 

The Resy app is free and available for download on both iOS and Android.

ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS

American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com, and connect with on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, Linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Vanessa Leitman, 917-929-3304, vanessa@resy.com

Lauren Young, 914-907-6339, lauren@parallel-pr.com.com