Breakfast at Tiffany’s
As soon as I heard that luxury mammoth Tiffany & Co had opened a cafe in their flagship Fifth Avenue store, I was desperate to go. This is, after all, the girl who showed up early the morning that Tiffany's finally opened a store in Cleveland to have a pastry and hot chocolate in the parking lot. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Of course, actually getting a reservation at Blue Box Cafe is easier said than done. I can, in fact, think of almost nothing I've experienced in recent years that has caused me more frustration. Except my company switching from Aetna to United Healthcare. To hopefully save you some of this frustration, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Reservations must be made online, through Resy. Don't think you can do it by phone. Don't think you can show up and hope someone cancels. No one cancels. And you'll be waiting all day.
Install the Resy app. I tried just setting up an account online, like on my computer, and then when clicking a time to book, Tiffany's website would take me to Resy where I could then login to confirm the reservation. The problem is that it only takes a few seconds each morning for that day's reservations to be taken. Gone. Booked. So unless you put the actual Resy app on your phone, saving you the steps of logging in and entering your credit card number, you'll never be fast enough. So get the Resy app. It's the only way.
Reservations for a particular day open for booking 30 days before that day. So, roughly, reservations for August 1 are able to be made on July 1. You've probably noticed that this makes it near impossible to try to plan a trp around it, as you typically need more than 30 days to do that. Also keep in mind the reservations open at 9AM eastern (6AM pacific if you're as lucky as I am), and like I said, they'll be gone in seconds, so get yourself ready to work it first thing in the morning, 30 days before the day you want.
Sign up for notifications. Since you inevitably won't get a reservation, sign up to be notified if any slots open up on the day you're looking for. It will amaze you how many times this happens. That you get sent a notification that the table you want is now available. It will also amaze you that no matter how quickly you click ""reserve"" to snag the slot, it will already be taken by the time the screen loads. This happened at least 20 times in my quest to get a reservation, and only after all those missed opportunities did I finally snag the cancelled spot before anyone else. So keep trying. Keep those notifications on.
Don't worry about time of day. All sections of the menu, even breakfast, are available all day. I had a 1PM reservation, but I wanted Breakfast at Tiffany's. And I got it.
Prepare to be underwhelmed by the food and overwhelmed by the charm. Let's face it. Food is not a strength of a luxury jewelry chain. I'd be concerned if it were. So you could sum up your meal by saying it's a lot of hassle and money for a mediocre croissant. But it won't really matter. Because that's not why you're there. You're there for the experience. For the swoony feeling, the charm of the robin's egg dishes (that you can, incidentally, buy just outside the cafe in the housewares department), for the cucumber sandwich tray. Besides, when it comes to charm, does it get any better than this: Waitress: "Do you want to see the dessert menu?" Tali: "I mean, I just had a waffle, but yes I do."