By Kaitlyn Luckoff

Medill Reports

If you set an alarm for 9 a.m. 21 days in advance, log onto Resy and cross your fingers, like Zoe Hannon did, you might get a reservation for a special occasion at a restaurant by Hogsalt — a restaurant group with establishments where diners clamor for a reservation to pay up to $250 for a porterhouse steak.

“We always joke if we want to get a table for someone’s birthday dinner, it’s like going to war 21 days in advance,” said Hannon, a frequent diner at Hogsalt restaurants. “I would totally swear off Hogsalt restaurants if they were not worth it, but every experience I’ve had at a Hogsalt restaurant has been impeccable.”

The craze around Hogsalt restaurants has taken social media by storm and is only picking up. TikTok user Gabriela Gonzalez shared a post in April: “trying Chicago’s hardest reservations to get.” The video showed Gonzalez tasting and reacting to her first bites of a variety of menu items. At the end of the video, she wrote, “I hate to break it to you, but it’s worth the hype.” 

Founded in 2013, the restaurant group has more than 25 “quirky, beautiful, and mischievous” restaurants in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and Paris, according to its website. Among its 13 establishments in Chicago are some of the city’s most popular restaurants featured in the Chicago Michelin guide: Gilt Bar, Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf and Ciccio Mio. But getting a reservation at any of them is next to impossible. 

“It really was astounding to me how quickly these reservations would disappear, even for a random Monday in December,” Hannon said. “I always figured that there had to be some sort of  built-out bot, or just some back-end, non-human process that was taking all of these reservations and then selling them for a profit.”

Some desperate diners have resorted to Appointment Trader, an online marketplace to exchange reservations, in hopes of purchasing a table. A four-person table at Armitage Alehouse on Saturday, May 31, at 6 p.m. was offered on the platform for $225. Reservations on this website range in price depending on the day, time and restaurant. If there aren’t any reservations for sale at a desired restaurant, users of Appointment Trader can place a bid to increase chances of getting a table. 

Illinois lawmakers are working on bill HB2456, which would make it illegal for anyone without a written agreement to list, sell or advertise reservations. Violators would be fined $1,000 for each offense. The Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act was approved by the governor on Aug. 15, and will be go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. 

A survey by Morning Consult for the National Restaurant Association found 80% of restaurant diners want protection from third-party reservation services. In a news release, the association said preventing the reservation black market is encouraged. 

“We are encouraged by the legislation that state legislatures are introducing to give control over restaurant reservations back to restaurants,” said Mike Whatley, vice president of State Affairs and Grassroots Advocacy for the National Restaurant Association. “Customers and restaurants want the system fixed so that it is fair and works for everyone.”

A message on the Resy website warns users they may not “sell, trade or distribute” their reservation, and selling a reservation may result in it being canceled. It is unclear how Resy would notice if a reservation was sold. Resy representatives did not reply to this question. 

Mike Zoller posted on TikTok in April a video of a golfer celebrating a winning shot, with the caption “How it feels when you get a 7 p.m. Saturday night reservation at a Hogsalt restaurant.” The video has more than 32,000 views, and other users commented, “this is so incredibly real,” and “I’m convinced only bots know this feeling.” Also known as @chicagobeer, Zoller reviews beers for his audience of more than 48k followers on TikTok. 

“Social media allows people to post about a restaurant, it goes viral, or people see it, then they do the same, similar post, and now everyone’s talking about the same 10 restaurants,” Zoller said. “Everyone wants to go there, whether they want to try the food or they want to make a TikTok about it.” 

While other restaurant groups in Chicago, like Lettuce Entertain You and Boka, have a variety of cuisines and aesthetics for their restaurants, Yasmine Duran said Hogsalt does not have this range. 

“I had this realization when I was at the one (Hogsalt restaurant) in New York, they all kind of look the same,” Duran said. “They all have the same things on the menu.”

Other diners are irritated by the booking fee for Hogsalt restaurants. To secure a reservation, Resy charges $2.50 per person for most Hogsalt restaurants in Chicago; Ciccio Mio’s booking fee is $5 for each seat at the table. And no, this isn’t a deposit, and it doesn’t count toward the bill for the meal. 

Hannon recently posted a TikTok of “propaganda she is not falling for.” Among the trending hue of butter yellow and expensive matcha lattes, she listed “Hogsalt reservation fees.” She said she has visited Hogsalt restaurants at least a dozen times this past year, but the reservation fees have changed her view on the establishments. Now, she walks in and hopes to secure an empty table, but she won’t book a reservation at a Hogsalt restaurant to avoid the additional payment.

“If you’re already spending $20 before you’re even sitting down at the table, that is already a sunk cost to the experience,” Hannon said. “I do understand that a lot of Hogsalt restaurants have the ability to do this because these tables are so sought after that people will pay these reservation fees.” 

Regardless of the controversy around this restaurant group, it appears to be thriving. According to private company tracker GrowJo, Hogsalt’s estimated annual revenue is currently $76.6 million per year. The group’s LinkedIn page says the restaurant group has more than 1,300 employees. Hogsalt did not respond to a request for a comment. 

“At the end of the day, as long as Appointment Trader isn’t impacting this and it’s truly just, there’s that many people in the city who want to go to these restaurants, then it is what it is,” Zoller said. “Reservations are hard to get at tough restaurants.” 

Kaitlyn Luckoff is a graduate student at Medill specializing in magazine reporting. You can connect with her on Linkedin.