- Nicky DiMaggio, known as “Little Nicky” to his clients, has found success as a professional booker
- His clientele ranges from professional sports leagues, major banks, celebrities and members of the United Nations
- He charges his clients between $500 and $1,000 per booking
Scoring making a reservation at a top New York restaurant isn’t for the faint of heart—but there’s one person in town who might be able to help you do just that.
Nicky DiMaggio, 33, or “Little Nicky,” as he’s now widely known, is a professional reservationist who has made a career out of tricking the right people into locking up the most coveted tables around.
From billionaires and celebrities to Wall Street giants and politicians, anyone who matters seeks his help to get their name on the right lists.
In fact, as he joked in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com this week, he may be one of the most powerful people in the Big Apple (at least on the restaurant scene).
So how does it do it? Here, DiMaggio reveals his secrets to securing the best tables at all the hottest restaurants in town.
DiMaggio first became interested in securing reservations at restaurant hotspots after visiting Rao in Harlem.
The 125-year-old, ten-table diner doesn’t accept walk-ins or reservations, and there’s virtually no way to contact the restaurant unless you have a stake — even if you’re a celebrity.
But after his cousin helped him get a table at just 17, he got hooked.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he said: “I realized that if I walked through those doors, I could walk through any door.”
From there, he began building his rolodex by networking with the owners of New York’s most exclusive restaurants.
When foodies found out about DiMaggio’s connections, they started asking him if he could make a reservation for them in his name.
They were going to send money to DiMaggio as a “thank you” for the service, but as more people sent in requests, he decided to make his business official with an LLC.
“The whole booking thing is a science,” DiMaggio said. “People want what they can’t have. [Restaurants] I want you to want it more and be disappointed that you can’t secure a reservation.
“People will say ‘I waited six months to get a booking and you came in in six minutes.’ Then they want to know “who is Nikki?”
But how much does a reservation cost? And how do you price something that would otherwise be free?
DiMaggio charges anywhere between $500 and $1,000 per reservation, depending on the date, time, location, number of people and how much notice he gets.
The most he has been paid for a booking is $5,000.
“A woman called me and said her boss (who was a billionaire) was flying to New York for a meeting and wanted to take his clients to dinner. She said he was flying to Teterboro, the driver would pick him up, take them to a restaurant called Per Se, and he would go home.
“I made the Per Se reservation in 10 minutes. She sent me the telegram in five minutes.
That’s not even the most money he’s ever seen a booking for.
On a website called Charity Buzz, where users can bid on reservations, a reservation at Rao’s costs $20,000 — and that’s before food.
Media outlets such as TMZ often reach out to DiMaggio to ask where celebrities dine, he said. But he remains loyal to his customers.
“I don’t do that. Because it’s trust,” he explained.
In fact, celebrities prefer to use DiMaggio for this very reason. It also helps them keep their identities hidden, as instead of using his real name for the booking, DiMaggio volunteers his own, allowing the celebrity a moment of privacy.
But it’s not just individuals who turn to DiMaggio. He said he also helps companies like the NBA, NFL, Morgan Stanley and the United Nations.
It has connected people from all walks of life, from WAGS to professional athletes to the Vice President of Sweden.
DiMaggio has a limit on how many people he can accommodate per restaurant, so even though he’s overwhelmed with requests, he can only send a certain number of customers to those tables.
‘[The restaurants] I want to emphasize that it doesn’t matter who you are, celebrity or not,” he said.
So what separates DiMaggio’s business from scalping?
What DiMaggio is doing is not illegal. New York’s scalping laws are strict, but only apply to entertainment and sports tickets.
“I had to be at a professional level and start invoicing people,” he said. “I don’t scalp. People pay for my services, pay for my relationship, pay for the work I have to put in to get this done sometimes.
Ballpark, DiMaggio said he makes about $500,000 just from selling reservations.
Some restaurants that ask DiMaggio to help bring in some business will give him a percentage of the customer’s cost to the restaurant
“Let’s say someone comes to town and I get them into a club and they spend $10,000, then I’ll bill the club 20 percent,” he said.
DiMaggio turned to apps like Appointment Trader or Dorsia, which allow people with existing appointments to sell them on a virtual marketplace.
He said these apps even sometimes go to Nicky to get more bookings for their site.
But he’s concerned about the growing use of bots that gobble up bookings the moment they’re available, so human thumbs don’t stand a chance.
“It’s not fair to customers. It’s not fair to the restaurants. I’ve seen people get rejected for a booking that doesn’t exist.
DiMaggio said before the pandemic, reservations weren’t that hard to come by.
‘I think [people] I realized the world could shut down in a day,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” I mean people create bots to create fake names, create fake virtual credit cards. I mean, it’s a scam. Just for booking, you know, it’s getting out of hand.
Different restaurants pop up every few months, but aside from Rao’s, DiMaggio said the hardest reservation to get in New York is 4 Charles Prime Rib — where he helped Hailey and Justin Bieber get in a month ago.
In second place is the Polo Bar on E 55th Street, where he said you literally can’t walk through the doors without a reservation.
In third place is Don Angie on Greenwich Avenue, which he said receives more than 2,000 booking requests a day.
DiMaggio has some pre-campaigns, saying he and Deux Moi, a celebrity Instagram account, are in discussions to launch something new.
“They want to make an app, but their focus is only on reserves where there are celebrity sightings.”
Deux Moi confirmed to DailyMail.com that they are in discussions with DiMaggio, but “it’s not definitely happening yet.”
DiMaggio’s entire livelihood revolves around getting people reservations. So what is his personal favorite place to dine?
“I like BondST in the lounge,” he said. “It’s such a vibe. They make me feel at home. I just love the energy.
He laughed and added, “My favorite restaurant is not necessarily impossible to get into.”
If you want to contact the booking king himself, DiMaggio keeps his number private.
But you can request to follow him on Instagram and send him a message. It also posts cancellations in its history, so you might get lucky if you scroll at the right time.
