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What you need to know about New York City’s new vaccine proof

The US’s largest city will require covid vaccine proof to get into bars, restaurants, and other venues.

• Lindsay Muscato archive page

New York City will be the first city in the US to require proof of vaccination to enter a variety of indoor places, the city’s mayor announced yesterday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told a press conference that starting September 13, the city will start requiring the proof at indoor venues like bars, restaurants, and gyms. The so-called Key to NYC Pass (which, rather confusingly, is a program, not an actual pass) is part of a suite of efforts to fight the more-transmissible delta variant, as cases rise across the city.  About 66% of the city’s adults are fully vaccinated, and officials hope the new requirements will convince more people to get the shots. The announcement follows the CDC’s new indoor mask guidance for places with substantial or high transmission, which has included New York in recent days. 

The broader plan also includes vaccine incentives like $100 debit cards. “The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time,” said de Blasio.

How it will work: To see a Broadway show, eat indoors at a restaurant, or use a gym, you’ll need to show proof that you’ve received at least one dose of a covid vaccine. (It won’t be needed for essentials, like grocery shopping.) Acceptable proof will include the state’s Excelsior Pass (which has faced a range of glitches and fairness concerns ), as well as a new app released by the city, NYC Covid Safe. A paper card issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also work. The requirement applies to both customers and employees of those places. 

Some details are still spotty. For example, it’s unclear how the plan will work for kids under 12, who aren’t yet eligible for vaccination. (De Blasio said more information would be released in mid-August.) It’s also unclear how venue operators and workers will deal with the burden of verifying everyone. The NYC Hospitality Alliance said in a statement that the new requirement would be “a very difficult step and controversial for some.” For other businesses, it’ll be a welcome way to enforce policies that used to be voluntary .

The app for that: The NYC Covid Safe app offers fewer features than the state app and doesn’t connect directly to vaccine records. Instead it simply stores an image of a vaccine record. That makes it an easier tool for people whose vaccine record is stored outside the state, since US vaccine databases aren’t nationally centralized. But Albert Fox Cahn, who studies vaccine passports as executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, points to some drawbacks. Because the city’s app is basically just storing a photo, it will accept pretty much anything as vaccine proof, making it remarkably easy to falsify credentials. “It's baffling to me that they would go to all this effort to basically reinvent the camera,” says Cahn.

S. Mitra Kalita, who founded the covid resource Epicenter-NYC , says that although the policies may be necessary to combat the delta variant, new tech shouldn’t detract from the bigger goal of helping more people to get vaccinated. “We are still encountering folks who don't know vaccines are free,” she says. “An app is one thing. We need many [other] things right now.” 

The bigger picture:  The US has faced a rocky road when it comes to vaccine apps and mandates. Many states have outright banned proof requirements. But there’s a sharp divide—San Francisco now has an alliance of hundreds of bars that are requiring some such proof. More and more employers have begun to require vaccines in recent days, including companies as disparate as Disney, Google, and Tyson .

Other countries, such as France and Italy , have faced backlash to recent mandates. The UK has been debating such a move. Israel canceled and then relaunched its “ green pass .” (The Ada Lovelace Institute has a good list .)

What’s next: New York City’s effort is the country’s largest local, government-led initiative, which means success could pave the way for other US cities and towns. It may, as de Blasio hopes, encourage vaccinations. Or it could turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Some research points to the effectiveness of more basic incentives, like giving people time off work . 

As with other pandemic-related tech interventions, the tricky thing will be figuring out whether it really helped to keep people safer, says Cyd Harrell, author of A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide . She says she initially worried that vaccine passports would be a form of tech theater. But the delta variant has changed the equation. 

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NYC vaccine mandate: What you need to visit restaurants, gyms, venues

CDC-issued vaccine cards, the NYS Excelsior Pass and the NYC COVID Safe app are valid forms of proof.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City's first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate took effect Tuesday, meaning everyone who enters restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues, and other businesses will need to be vaccinated.

They will also have to show proof in the form of a CDC-issued vaccine card, the New York State Excelsior Pass or the NYC COVID Safe app.

Even photograph of a vaccination card is acceptable.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has told businesses this will be no different than checking customers' IDs before serving alcohol.

"Just buy into this because it's going to work for all of us, is going to make us all safer," de Blasio said Monday.

RELATED | NY launches Excelsior Pass Plus to expand proof of COVID-19 vaccination program

The city is giving businesses nearly a month before it starts enforcing the rule, on September 13, but that doesn't mean there isn't concern about the mandate's impact.

The rules apply to everyone -- customers, employees, New York City residents, commuters and visitors alike -- in settings ranging from arenas to coffee shops to yoga studios. Even strip clubs are included.

There are exceptions for children under 12, who are not yet eligible for vaccination, and athletes, contractors and some performers who don't live in the city.

The policy also excludes church potlucks, community centers, office buildings, house parties - even if they're catered - and people ducking in somewhere to pick up food or use the bathroom, among other exemptions.

The mayor has laid out a fine structure for businesses caught not ensuring indoor customers are vaccinated.

It ranges from $1000 for the first offense, $2000 for the second, and $5000 for the third.

RELATED | CVS, Walgreens offering 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccine for immunocompromised Americans

City officials have promised training for businesses on how to handle possible confrontations between patrons and staffers, who will be on the frontlines of checking vaccination status.

Business owners have offered differing predictions on how their customers will react to the mandate.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the city's most visited venues, said it was working on how to implement the new rule but supports it.

So does the NYC Hospitality Alliance, a restaurant and bar owners' group, though executive director Andrew Rigie said the vaccine checks add another challenge for establishments struggling to recover from pandemic shutdowns and a labor shortage.

But restaurateurs hope the requirement will help keep the outbreak from worsening and spurring more onerous restrictions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 COVERAGE

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccine

Need something else?

• Immunization Record  for proof of vaccination

The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. 

It can reduce your risk of:

• COVID-19 symptoms
• Severe illness and hospitalization
• Long-term health effects, such as Long COVID

The best way to protect yourself and others is to stay up to date with the COVID-19 vaccinations.

Everyone 6 years and older should get the new, updated COVID-19 vaccine, even if they’ve received any original COVID-19 vaccines. Young children, seniors, and people at high-risk may need extra doses.

If you have questions or concerns, talk to your medical provider.

Learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccine Recommendations

Everyone 6 months and older should get the new, updated COVID-19 vaccine. This new vaccine protects against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and current variants.

The new, updated Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the only brands of the updated COVID-19 vaccine currently available in the US. It doesn’t matter which brand you choose. Older Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are no longer available.

You should get the updated vaccine, even if you’ve already received:

• Any original COVID-19 vaccines
• The older bivalent booster that targeted earlier Omicron subvariants

The number of doses you need depends on your age and if you’re at risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

If you recently had COVID-19, talk to your health care provider about when you should get your next vaccine.

People 5 Years or Older

Everyone 5 years and older should get one dose of the new, updated COVID-19 vaccine. You can get the new vaccine two months after your last dose.

If you are 65 or older, you may get a second dose of the updated vaccine 4 or more months after your first dose. Talk to your health care provider if you have questions about the number of doses you need.

Children Younger Than 5

Children 6 months to 4 years old need multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Young children get the same vaccine as for adults, but at a lower dose.

The number of doses needed for this age group depends on the child’s vaccination history.

• Schedule: Second dose given at least 21 days after the first, and the third dose given at least 56 days after the second.
• Doses: 2 (if immunocompromised, the child should get three doses)
• Schedule: Second dose given at least 28 days after the first
• If the child has already received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, talk to your child’s health care provider. The child should get at least one dose of the new, updated Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, but the total number of doses they need depends on the vaccine and how many doses they’ve previously received.

People with a Weakened Immune System

If you have a weakened immune system, you should get more than one dose of the new, updated COVID-19 vaccine. You can get additional doses as long as they are given at least two months apart.

If you have never received a COVID-19 vaccine, you should get three vaccine doses as part of your initial series. Then, you can also get additional doses at least 2 months after the last one.

Talk with your health care provider if you have questions about how many vaccine doses you should get. 

Vaccine Sites

All people aged 6 months and older, regardless of residency or immigration status, are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in NYC. 

You can get the vaccine for free at some sites. Other sites may charge a copay or other fee. Check with the site or provider before you go.

Vaccine Finder  can help you find vaccination sites, mobile buses, and pop-ups near you that:

• Accept walk-ups
• Offer or require appointments
• Are accessible for people with disabilities (check to confirm site-specific availability)
• Provide a specific vaccine type

Visit nyc.gov/VaccineFinder.

Before You Go

Before you can get a vaccine, you must:

1) Bring a document showing proof of age, such as a:

• Driver’s license or non-driver ID
• Birth certificate issued by a state or local government
• Current U.S passport or valid foreign passport
• Permanent resident card
• Certificate of Naturalization or Citizenship
• Life insurance policy with birthdate
• Marriage certificate with birthdate

2) Provide written or verbal consent if your child is getting the vaccine:

• A parent or guardian must provide consent for their child to be vaccinated in person, by phone or in writing, depending on the vaccination site. They will not need to provide proof they are the child's parent or guardian.
• Children ages 15 and younger should be accompanied to the vaccination site by a parent or guardian, or another adult caregiver designated by the parent or guardian.

After You Get the Vaccine

After you get vaccinated at a City or State site, you'll be given a card with the following:

• Your name, date of birth, and medical record number (if you have one)
• Name of the vaccine you were given
• Date and place you got the shot

Cancel or Reschedule an Appointment

If you need to reschedule or cancel a vaccine appointment, contact the site where you scheduled your appointment. Phone numbers are listed on nyc.gov/VaccineFinder.

If you have an appointment with an NYC Health + Hospitals site, you can cancel or reschedule by phone.

• Agency: NYC Health + Hospitals
• Phone Number: (844) 692-4692
• Business Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week

Accessibility

Disability and Language Access

Each City-run vaccination site has:

• An accessible entrance and exit, restroom, and pathway to the vaccination area
• Video translation services for more than 240 languages, including American Sign Language
• A Disability Access and Functional Needs (DAFN) Coordinator to help you during your visit

Most sites will not require you to complete any paper documentation during your visit. If it is required, the DAFN Coordinator can help you complete it.

You may bring a companion, personal care attendant, personal care aide, family member, or other person to help you during your appointment. This can include someone who can interpret for you.

You may also bring a service animal or mobility device such as a wheelchair or walker.

If you need to request a reasonable accommodation, visit the  Disability Access  page.

The City no longer offers in-home vaccination for COVID-19. Talk to your doctor if you are homebound and need a COVID-19 vaccine.

Transportation for Seniors

You can schedule transportation to your vaccine appointment if you are 65 or older and:

• Cannot use public transportation,
• Cannot use private transportation, and
• Cannot rely on friends or family members for transport.

You must already have a vaccine appointment before scheduling transportation. However, you do not need an appointment for City-run vaccination sites.

If you are between the ages of 60 and 64, visit the Transportation for Seniors  page instead for other transportation options.

Access-a-Ride

If you already use Access-a-Ride, you can schedule transportation to your appointment as you normally would.

• Agency: Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Division: Access-A-Ride
• Phone Number: (718) 393-4999
• Business Hours: Daily: 7 AM - 5 PM
• Staff is available through the automated phone system during business hours. Automated assistance is also available in Spanish. If you get a busy signal, call (877) 337-2017.

If you have Medicaid-provided transportation, you can use your usual contact number to schedule transport. You can also call Medicaid Transportation Management.

• Agency: Medicaid Transportation Management
• Phone Number: (844) 666-6270

Vaccine Mandates

COVID-19 vaccination is optional.

The City doesn't require you to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter or work at businesses, workplaces, schools, child care, government offices, and other facilities in NYC. However, businesses and workplaces can still require staff and customers to be vaccinated if they choose.

Side Effects

Call your health care provider if: 

• You have side effects that concern you
• Redness or soreness where you got the shot increases after 24 hours
• Side effects don’t go away after a few days

You can also report side effects to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is managed by the CDC and Food and Drug Administration. 

You can make a report online or by phone. Your information will be kept confidential.

Report side effects to VAERS.

• Agency: Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
• Phone Number: (800) 822-7967
• Business Hours: Monday - Friday: 9 AM - 5 PM

Disclaimer:

The City intends to use the data collected from this survey to generally add and improve City services. Survey participation is voluntary. Participants in this survey will not receive further communication from the City with regards to this survey.

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Updated 3/1/2024

WHILE IN NEW YORK

Call ahead and check websites and social media to make sure attractions and amenities are open and available.

The CDC recommends staying home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick) if you have respiratory virus symptoms that aren't better explained by another cause. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others. If you test positive for COVID-19, call the following numbers for information on treatments and other assistance: 1-888-364-3065 (All of New York State) 1-212-COVID19 (212-268-4319) (New York City only)

MASKS & VACCINATION

Wearing a well-fitting face mask or respirator (i.e. KN95, KF94 or N95 or higher rated mask)  completely covering your nose and mouth  and staying current on COVID-19 vaccines and boosters can help keep you and the communities you are visiting safe. 

Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination continue to be required in all cities, localities, and private businesses that choose to require them despite the removal of statewide mandates. Businesses and venues may require COVID-19 safety measures for some or all events they host.

Please be respectful of the request to put on a mask properly covering both nose and mouth, or other COVID-19 safety mitigation requirements, at an attraction or in a place of business.

Visitors to NYC who are interested in finding mask-required venues and events can find relevant information on the NYC Mask Guide site  (note: clicking this link will take you to a separate website created by local residents, these listings are not curated by I LOVE NY).

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

As of May 12, 2023, international visitors are no longer required to show proof of vaccination to enter the United States.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

World Health Organization: Coronavirus

CDC: How to protect yourself & others

CDC: 2019 Novel Coronavirus

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NYC Department of Health

US Travel Association - Emergency Preparedness and Response: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Vaccination in New York Stat e

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COVID Rules in NYC Change: What to Know as Vaccine Mandate Ends

The democratic mayor of new york city faced significant backlash earlier this year after dropping the mandate for professional athletes and performers but not other private-sector employees. the latter is over now, but the rule remains in place for 300,000 city workers, by nbc new york staff • published november 1, 2022 • updated on november 1, 2022 at 7:45 am.

New York City's strictest-in-the-nation COVID vaccine mandate covering the private sector is officially over as of Tuesday, following last week's health board vote to drop the nearly year-old program amid ongoing pandemic progress.

The decision to end the order implemented by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the waning days of his administration was unanimous, as was health leaders' vote to rescind COVID mandates for high-risk extracurricular activities.

Private employers now have the option to keep the mandate, though it is no longer required by city health ordinance. The COVID mandate for the city's hundreds of thousands of public workers, though, remains in effect.

Mayor Eric Adams said in late September he had no planned end date for that in mind -- a statement with which a chunk of the city's more than 300,000 employees, including some who work for the FDNY and NYPD, take issue.

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The Democrat dropped the vaccine requirement for professional athletes in late March as vaccine controversy surrounded Nets' Kyrie Irving, drawing ire from businesses who cried double standard .

It's not clear how many private-sector employees lost their jobs over the mandate, though, or whether they may not be eligible to get them back now that it's over. Asked directly about the municipal mandate, which led to the termination of more than 1,500 city employees at the time of his September announcement, Adams said he didn't have an end date.

Representatives from FDNY and NYPD unions were quick to blast that comment as "arbitrary" and "capricious."

The latest COVID developments in New York come amid rising wariness over the emergence of new COVID variants, some of which haven't even been detected in the United States yet, that appear more vaccine-resistant and contagious.

Officials say existing vaccines work on those as well, and encourage those who haven't yet gotten their bivalent boosters to do so. CDC guidelines also indicate lowering COVID risk for the New York area versus recent months.

As of Tuesday, only seven of the state's 62 counties (11%) are considered high risk for COVID spread, according to the CDC. Brooklyn and the Bronx are the two New York City boroughs at low COVID risk, while the rest of the state is deemed medium-risk. Low-risk counties are advised merely to follow basic COVID protocol -- stay home when sick, wash hands frequently, under CDC guidelines, while vulnerable people in medium-risk counties should mask up.

More COVID News

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COVID Rates Back Above 20% in Parts of Manhattan as Virus Rebounds

‘Troublesome' New COVID Variants Spreading in NY Area at Double US Rate: What Fauci Says

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New York to require proof of vaccination for indoor settings - here's how that will work

Aug 3, 2021 • 4 min read

New York is launching a mandate that requires proof of vaccination at a range of indoor spaces ©Bloomberg/Getty Images

New York City is the first in the US to require proof of vaccination as a condition of entry for people who wish to enter venues such as restaurants, theaters, stadiums and gyms.

New York officials are racing to get ahead of a potential third wave of the pandemic by stepping up the pressure on residents to get vaccinated. Similar to policies in France, Italy and Spain, New York is launching a mandate called the Key to NYC Pass to encourage vaccine uptake and reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in busy indoor spaces by requiring proof of inoculation from patrons.

At a press conference on Tuesday morning , mayor Bill de Blasio announced details of the plan that will be introduced on August 16 for a transition period before full enforcement on September 13. Fines will be imposed on inspected businesses who do not ask for proof of vaccination at their doors.

"We're not going to issue fines before September," Mr de Blasio told reporters. "It's pretty straightforward. People checking in to go to a restaurant or bar or anything, you check the vaccination status at the door. If they have it, great; if they don't, turn around."

How does the Key to NYC Pass work for residents and tourists?

There is no specific pass or paperwork for the Key to NYC Pass. If you're a New York resident, you can show your vaccination card at the door or upload your vaccination status to the Excelsior Pass smartphone app. If you're visiting New York from another state or even a different country, you can present whatever vaccination card that was issued to you by official health providers.

Mr de Blasio said: "As long as the proof is accurate and real, wherever it comes from, that's what they'll need to show."

What about children?

The pass only applies to people who can be vaccinated. Children under 12 will be able to enter venues, though Mr de Blasio said in the coming months it's likely that children between the ages of five and 11 will be eligible for vaccination. More details on how the pass will work for children will be announced within the next two weeks.

"The goal is not to exclude anyone who can't be vaccinated," he explained. "Everyone in New York City 12 and older will now have a very clear standard to meet. If they want to do any of these activities indoors, they'll need to be vaccinated."

Where do I need to show the Key to NYC Pass?

For now, it will be required at busy indoor spaces that attract crowds such as restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, cinemas and stadiums. Essential everyday places like grocery stores and even shopping malls are excluded.

Will more COVID-19 mandates be introduced?

Mr de Blasio told reporters that the approach to managing the pandemic is "vaccine-centric" for now and New York doesn't plan to introduce additional measures like mask mandates, though people are strongly encouraged to wear masks in public spaces. Mr de Blasio explained that he wants to "show very bluntly that life is much better when you're vaccinated" and that people who are not vaccinated have "fewer opportunities."

"When you hear those words, I want you to imagine the notion that, because someone’s vaccinated, they can do all the amazing things that are available in this city," Mr de Blasio said of the Key to NYC Pass.

Last week, Mr de Blasio announced that city workers who aren't vaccinated will be required to undergo weekly COVID-19 tests and offered a $100 incentive for the public to get vaccinated.

In the US, having to prove you're vaccinated against COVID-19 before entering venues is becoming more common. In California, a group representing around 300 of San Francisco's bars has directed its members to ask for proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 result from their patrons. The San Francisco Bar Alliance said in a statement it is the group's "official position" from July 29 and "it will be up to each individual bar to decide how best to enforce" the new policy.

You might also like: Italy's 'green pass' will grant access to theatres, bars and more Parts of Spain now require a health pass from visitors to enter indoor spaces France's new health pass is now required for your trip - here's how to get it

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Immunization Clinics

Immunization services.

The Fort Greene Health Center Immunization Clinic will also be closed the third Tuesday of each month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Immunization services will begin at 10 a.m. on these days.

Patients are required to make an appointment before they visit the Immunization Clinic. If you need help making an appointment, call 347-396-7943.

You can get low- or no-cost immunizations at the Health Department's Fort Greene Health Center immunization clinic, regardless of your immigration status. The clinic serves anyone 4 years or older.

In addition to the Fort Greene Health Center described below, uninsured and underinsured adults can also get immunization services at other locations for a sliding scale fee.

To find other locations throughout NYC that provide vaccination services for children and adults, search the NYC Health Map or call 311 . To find COVID-19 vaccine locations, search the NYC COVID-19 and Flu Vaccine Finder.

For general information about the Health Department's clinics, visit our NYC Health Clinics page .

Fort Greene Health Center

• Address: 295 Flatbush Avenue Extension, Fifth Floor (corner of Willoughby Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension, near the Fulton Mall and Long Island University) Brooklyn
• Hours: Monday to Friday: 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Public Transportation Directions: Take the A, C or F trains to Jay Street, the 2, 3, 4 or 5 trains to Nevins Street, the R, Q or B trains to DeKalb Avenue, or the A, C or G trains to Hoyt - Schermerhorn.

Be sure to bring your vaccination record and insurance information with you to the clinic.

The Fort Greene immunization clinic provides immunizations recommended for children 4 years and older, teens and adults, including:

• Flu vaccine
• Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis combination vaccines (DTaP, and Tdap)
• Haemophilus influenza type b vaccine (Hib, for children age 4)
• Hepatitis A vaccine
• Hepatitis B vaccine
• Human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV)
• Inactivated polio vaccine (for children through age 17)
• Measles, mumps and rubella combination vaccine (MMR)
• Meningococcal vaccine
• Pneumococcal vaccine
• Varicella vaccine
• Flu vaccine (standard and high-dose flu vaccines)
• Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis combination vaccine (Tdap)
• Tetanus and diphtheria vaccine (Td)
• Hepatitis A vaccine (for at-risk adults)
• Hepatitis B vaccine (for at-risk adults)
• Human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV, for adults through age 26)
• Measles, mumps, and rubella combination vaccine (MMR)
• Meningococcal vaccine (for at-risk adults)

Health Insurance and Billing Practices

In order to comply with Medicaid rules, the Health Department’s immunization clinic must request insurance or payment for services.

If you have health insurance, the Health Department will bill your insurance. You will not be charged a copay. If you are over 19 years of age and you do not have health insurance or do not want your insurance billed, the Health Department will ask for a sliding scale fee based on family size and annual income.

Clinic staff will not ask for proof of family size and income, and services will be provided regardless of ability to pay.

• Clinic Fee Notification Letter (PDF) Other Languages: Español | Русский | 繁體中文 | 简体中文 | Kreyòl ayisyen | 한국어 | বাংলা | Italiano | Polski | العربية | Français | ײִדיש | اردو
• Frequently Asked Questions

Parents and Children

Children between 4 and 16 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Children who are 16 or 17 years must have a signed consent from a parent or guardian or be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

To find immunizations for children younger than 4, call 311 to find a child health clinic near you.

Travel Vaccines

Travel immunizations, including for yellow fever and typhoid, and malaria prophylaxis are not provided at the Fort Greene immunization clinic. You can find travel clinic locations online .

There are two shingles vaccines on the market in the United States. Shingrix® is the preferred shingles vaccine and recommended for people 50 years and older. People who cannot receive Shingrix® may use Zostavax®, which is recommended for people 60 and older.

The shingles vaccines are not available at the Fort Greene immunization clinic. Pharmacists who are licensed to vaccinate in New York State can administer the shingles vaccine without a prescription from your doctor. To find locations that offer shingles vaccines, check with your pharmacist or health care provider, or search the NYC Health Map .

Clinic Feedback

If you have received immunization services at the Fort Greene Health Center, please complete our patient satisfaction survey . Your feedback will help us improve the quality of patient care at the clinic.

Clinic Closure Dates

• New Year's Day (January 1)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 15)
• Presidents Day (February 19)
• Memorial Day (May 27)
• Juneteenth (June 19)
• Independence Day (July 4)
• Labor Day (September 2)
• Columbus Day (October 14)
• Election Day (November 5)
• Veterans Day (November 11)
• Thanksgiving Day (November 28)
• Christmas Day (December 25)

The clinic is also closed on the following dates in 2024:

• February 29
• September 11
• September 26
• December 11
• December 26

Additional Locations for Uninsured and Underinsured Adults

Adults 19 years and older who do not have insurance, or who have insurance that does not cover the cost of immunizations, may also contact or visit the community health centers listed below.

These health centers charge a sliding scale fee payment based on family size and annual income. Clinic staff will not ask for proof of family size or income. Services will be provided regardless of ability to pay.

You do not need to make an appointment. You will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis. Be sure to bring your vaccination record, if available.

Ryan Chelsea-Clinton Community Health Center

• Address : 645 10th Avenue (Between West 45th and 46th Streets) Manhattan
• Hours : Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Public Transportation Directions : Take the E or C train to 50th Street, the A or C trains to 42nd Street, the N or W trains to 49th Street, the M42 bus to 10th Avenue, or the M11 bus to 46th Street.

Beacon Christian Community Health Center

• Address : 2079 Forest Avenue (Between Union and Bruckner Avenues) Staten Island
• Public Transportation Directions : Take the S48, S98 or SIM30 bus to Forest Avenue/Union Avenue.

Available Vaccines for Uninsured and Underinsured People

• Influenza vaccine (standard and high-dose flu vaccines)

Vaccines for travel are not offered at Health Department-affiliated immunization clinics.

Closed Clinics

The Health Department no longer operates immunization clinics in Corona, Queens (PDF) or in the Tremont area of the Bronx (PDF).

Additional Resources

More information.

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Also, for the Statue of Liberty, there is an option to buy a child ticket for ages 12 and under, do they ask for proof of children's ages for these tickets? The 12 year old could easily pass for 14, and my 13 year old could pass for 16, so I don't want to have a problem with buying the ticket for the 12 year old.

Unless you and your daughters are vaccinated, there is very little you can do indoors & it has been very cold in the northeast this year.

https://www.nycgo.com/coronavirus-information-and-resources-for-travelers

You can find more info here:

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-vaccines-keytonyc.page

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are USGov’t sores so the rules there are different.

You will not be able to visit museums of dine indoors without proof of vax.

Things to do without vax —- be sure to click on link in the responses too.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k13804214-Do_you_have_to_be_vaccinated_to_do_anything_in_nyc-New_York_City_New_York.html

Two of the three hotels we have stayed in since the rules went in to place asked us for vax proof. If your hotel provides food, like breakfast, they might require vax proof at checkin so they don’t have to check everyone at breakfast each day.

-You need to contact the hotel that you plan to book to confirm.

-I have not been in any store that has asked me for vax proof. I do wear my mask inside.

-There are many things that you can do outside, if you are prepared to deal with the potential cold weather.

-Restaurants? You can eat outside or get takeout from many places. You can't eat inside.

If you are all ok with being outside in cold weather for 8 to 10 hours a day with a few stops into stores and eating outside then sure, it is doable. Fun? Only you know your family.

***-You need to contact the hotel that you plan to book to confirm.

-Restaurants? You can eat outside or get takeout from many places. You can't eat inside.***

The above information is spot on.

Come and enjoy yourself. Stay in the city, hotels in NJ can work, but add another layer for commuting. Call hotels to verify, but you'll find one.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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The owners and operators of Broadway theatres in New York City will continue their mask optional policy until further notice. Consistent with New York City and State recommendations, audience members are strongly encouraged to wear masks in theatres.

For more information regarding safety and safety protocols, please consult your show’s official website or the website of the theatre you are planning to visit.   Please verify the theatre policies and requirements before making your purchase.

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The countries you can travel to without a vaccine

By Abigail Malbon

Travel around the world is easier now, particularly for those who are fully vaccinated with an approved Covid vaccine – but some countries are allowing unvaccinated travellers to enter. Yet with restrictions constantly changing, how do the latest rules affect those who aren't fully vaccinated, and which countries are allowing tourists to enter if they're unvaccinated?

Where can I travel unvaccinated?

There are currently a number of countries that will allow visitors who have not been vaccinated to enter. A few of them are in Europe , and the others are slightly farther afield. We recommend always closely following UK health guidance, including having your Covid vaccine and booster if you are able to. Before travelling, you should regularly check government guidelines both for the country you might be considering visiting and for the UK when you return.

You can find the full list of countries allowing people to enter without a vaccine below:

Since 1 May 2022, unvaccinated travellers are able to visit the country without proof of a negative PCR or rapid antigen test. Passenger locator forms are also no longer required.

Arrivals may, however, be required to undergo a rapid Covid test on arrival. If you test positive on arrival in Greece, you (and those you are travelling with) will have to self-isolate for at least five days, either at home or in a hotel (this will be paid for by the Greek state). If you have no symptoms on day five you will be allowed to leave quarantine.

For holiday inspiration, see our guide to the best Greek Islands to visit .

Read the rules on travel to Greece .

2. Portugal and Madeira

Portugal ’s mainland and Madeira are open to travellers who have not been vaccinated, as long as they can prove they don't have coronavirus when they enter the country. To enter mainland Portugal, you will be required to show proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 or an antigen test taken within 24 hours of departure for the country as well as complete and submit a traveller questionnaire before departure for the country. Self-administered tests are not accepted. Your temperature will also be screened on arrival.

To enter Madeira, you must register on the Madeira Safe travellers platform and download a QR code to present to airport staff on arrival. You must provide proof of a negative antigen test taken within 48 hours of departure that has been administered by a trained healthcare professional.

Your airline may deny boarding if you cannot show one of these documents when you check in for your flight. Check with your airline before you travel.

Read the rules on travel to Portugal .

Unvaccinated adult travellers can enter Spain if they are able to show proof of a negative test taken before entering the country. Previously, only fully vaccinated travellers aged 12 and over could enter Spain from the UK, but the destination has relaxed rules slightly, so it is now accepting negative PCR tests taken in the 72 hours before departure for the country or negative antigen tests taken in the 24 hours before departure for the country in lieu of full vaccination in adults. However, those who cannot meet either criteria will not be able to enter.

As of 1 February, you need to have received your second jab between 14 and 270 days before travel to Spain and the Canary Islands to be classed as fully vaccinated. Children aged 12-17 no longer need to show proof of a vaccine, but will need a negative PCR test to enter.

Read the rules on travel to Spain .

Unvaccinated travellers can enter Croatia without showing proof of a vaccine or negative test. The requirement to fill out a passenger locator form also no longer exists.

Read the rules on travel to Croatia .

Unvaccinated travellers to  Cyprus  must provide proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before departure for the country or an antigen test taken in the 24 hours before departure for the country. Travellers over 12 may then be asked to take another PCR test upon arrival at Larnaca or Paphos airports, and remain in isolation until the result comes back (this should take roughly three hours). This costs €15–€19 and must be paid for by the traveller.

Read the rules on travel to Cyprus .

If you are unvaccinated and over 12 years old, you must provide a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours or an antigen test result taken within 48 hours pre-departure for entry to France.

Read the rules on travel to France .

7. Maldives

All travellers to the Maldives must fill in a Traveller Declaration form in the 72 hours prior to departure. A PCR test is no longer required regardless of vaccination status.

Read the rules on travel to the Maldives .

Unvaccinated tourists entering Italy from the UK must show a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours before entering, or a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours before entering. The requirement to fill in a passenger locator form has now been lifted.

Read the rules on travel to Italy .

9. Dubai and United Arab Emirates

You do not have to be fully vaccinated to visit the UAE. Unvaccinated arrivals to the Emirates must present evidence of a negative PCR test taken 48 hours before departure. Unvaccinated travellers from the UK to Dubai may be required to have a Covid-19 PCR test on arrival.

Read the rules on travel to Dubai .

10. Slovenia

Unvaccinated British travellers to Slovenia must provide a Digital Passenger Locator Form, but are not required to show proof of a negative test or vaccination to enter.

You do not need to be fully vaccinated to visit Turkey, but you must be able to show proof of a negative PCR test (taken no more than 72 hours before entry), rapid antigen test (taken no more than 48 hours before entry), or proof of a recent recovery from Covid-19 within the last six months. Arrivals into the country should also show an online form completed 72 hours before travel and will be subject to a medical evaluation for symptoms of coronavirus, including temperature checks. Arrivals may be subject to random PCR testing on arrival.

CNT Editors

CNT Editors , CN Traveller

You must wear a face mask at all times while in an airport and for the duration of all flights, to and from Turkey.

Read the rules on travel to Turkey .

Mexico  does not currently require visitors to show a negative PCR test or quarantine on arrival. Resorts are also able to request guests fill in a health questionnaire on arrival.

Read the rules on travel to Mexico .

13. Ireland

If you are travelling to Ireland as of Sunday 6 March 2022, you do not need to show any proof of vaccination, proof of recovery, negative test or passenger locator form.

Read the rules on travel to Ireland .

As of Friday 1 April 2022, UK travellers visiting Sweden are no longer required to present a negative Covid-19 test or proof of vaccination.

15. Seychelles

Travellers are able to enter Seychelles regardless of vaccination status, but must present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to departure for the country or a rapid antigen test done within 24 hours. There is no requirement to quarantine on arrival, but travellers must stay in approved accommodation.

16. Bahamas

Unvaccinated travellers aged 12 and over must show a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to the date of arrival to The Bahamas. All visitors of any age must submit a Bahamas Travel Health Visa Trip application. Seventeen-year-olds and under must be included in a parent or guardian’s profile.

All travellers to Egypt must complete a declaration form before entering the country. Unvaccinated travellers are required to show either a negative PCR test, taken no more than 72 hours before arrival in Egypt, or a rapid antigen test. Proof of Covid-19 recovery will not be accepted.

18. Cape Verde

You do not need to be fully vaccinated to enter Cape Verde, but you do need to be able to prove that you don't have Covid, either with a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before departure for the country or a lateral flow test taken 48 hours, when you check-in for your flight to Cape Verde.

19. Iceland

On 25 February 2022 all Covid restrictions were removed, including domestic rules. This means you do not need to test or show proof of vaccination status to enter the country.

20. Luxembourg

All travellers to Luxembourg need to fill in a passenger locator form before their flight. Those who are not vaccinated need to show proof of a negative PCR test taken no more than 48 hours before their flight, or a negative lateral flow test taken no more than 24 hours before. If you’re not fully vaccinated but have tested positive for Covid in the last year you can show proof of recovery to enter.

The travel restrictions upon entry into Norway have been lifted, which means that the same rules as before the pandemic now apply.

Read the rules on travel to Norway .

22. Sri Lanka

Covid travel insurance is mandatory for all visitors, and unvaccinated travellers need to show proof of a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before their flight, or a negative lateral flow test taken no more than 48 hours before – be aware that self-swab tests are not recognised.

23. South Africa

Travellers to South Africa must present proof of a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before departure for the country. You may be screened on arrival.

Read the rules on travel to South Africa .

Unvaccinated travellers to Belize must present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before arrival, or a negative antigen test taken in the 48 hours before arrival. You may also opt to take a rapid test at the airport, at a cost of BZ$100 or US$50 (which must be paid in cash). If you test positive, you will be required to quarantine at your own cost. Foreign tourists are required to pay BZ$36 (US$18) for Belize Travel Health Insurance – this is mandatory even if you already have personal travel insurance and helps protect against incurred medical and non-medical expenses should you test positive for Covid during your stay in Belize.

There are no direct flights from the UK to Belize, so it's important to check the rules of the country you will be transiting through too.

25. Costa Rica

Since 1 April 2022 there have been no requirements for entry to Costa Rica in regards to coronavirus. However, the government acknowledges that these may be brought back at short notice, in which case travellers should always check guidance before their trip.

Since 6 April 2022, there have been no requirements for travellers from the UK to show either a Covid vaccination or Covid test when entering Cuba. However, random testing is still being carried out at airports, and anyone who tests positive will be moved to quarantine in a designated government health centre, at their own expense.

27. Denmark

There are no Covid-related requirements regarding test or self-isolation when entering Denmark.

Read the rules on travel to Denmark .

You do not need to show proof of vaccination to enter Monaco, however travellers over the age of 16 who are not fully vaccinated will need to provide either a negative result of a PCR or antigen test taken within the last 24 hours, or a certificate showing proof of recovery from Covid-19 (a positive PCR or antigen test, taken more than 11 days before arrival and within the last six months).

Do I have to quarantine when returning to the UK?

No. On 18 March 2022 all Covid travel rules within the UK were removed – which means that travellers do not need to test, quarantine or even fill in a passenger locator form , regardless of their vaccination status, upon return to the country.

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Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation

By Adam Iscoe

Everyone needs to eat somewhere, and in New York City that place is often a restaurant. New York is a city of long hours, tiny kitchens, cramped apartments—and dining out, a lot. There is, improbably, always an occasion: date night, working late, friends in town, New Year’s Eve, too tired to cook, in-laws, layoff, anniversary, breakup. But getting a decent dinner reservation here is a challenge. Any well-reviewed Italian joint? You’d better have one. Gourmet burger place? Good luck. The new French-Korean fried-chicken spot? Booked solid for months.

In New York, the neighborhood restaurant doesn’t have much room for neighbors anymore. At Sailor , April Bloomfield and Gabriel Stulman’s new spot in Fort Greene, reservations are scooped up fourteen days in advance by residents of SoHo, Aspen, and East Hampton, who likely saw the place on some list, or while doomscrolling TikTok or Eater. The majority of diners log on to a restaurant’s Web site at 10:59 A.M. , two weeks before they want to eat out, then wait, click, and pray. Pete Wells , who gave Sailor a three-star review in the Times , wrote that although the bar and two booths in front are set aside for walk-ins, reservations “disappear within minutes of being offered.” Locals are politely quoted a three-hour wait. Of Roscioli, a downtown outpost of the famous Roman restaurant, the Post wrote, “New Yorkers are risking their lives, begging, bribing and pleading to get a table at the Italian eatery.”

Since the pandemic, tough reservations have gotten even tougher. (One poll indicated that, during lockdown, people missed restaurants more than they missed their friends and family.) To sidestep the reservation scrum, particularly at a hundred and fifty of the city’s buzziest restaurants, a new squad of businesses, tech impresarios, and digital legmen has sprung up, offering to help diners cut through the reservation red tape, for a price. In the new world order, desirable reservations are like currency; booking confirmations for 4 Charles Prime Rib, a clubby West Village steakhouse, have recently been spotted on Hinge and Tinder profiles.

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A certain kind of fat cat has always had someone else—a secretary, a concierge, the butler—make reservations. For regular people, though, booking a table at all but the most exclusive restaurants—Le Pavillon in the fifties, the Four Seasons in the sixties, Sign of the Dove in the seventies, Le Cirque in the eighties, Per Se in the two-thousands—required only a telephone.

“My whole career, that’s what you did,” Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, who worked as a maître d’ in the eighties and nineties, told me. Reservationists were trained to pick up the phone within three rings; they’d write the name in a log, underlining V.I.P.s twice. “And you damn well knew every customer,” he said. If a regular or a celebrity showed up without a reservation, Cecchi-Azzolina usually squeezed them in. “There’s some kind of alchemy in the restaurant world,” he said. “Somebody cancels, somebody’s late, and you’re out of the weeds.” One night, when he worked at the River Café, in Brooklyn, a man palmed him six hundred dollars for a table. He said he could tell the denomination of the bills by the feel of the paper in his hand: tens and twenties were worn, hundreds were crisp.

In 2024, plenty of diners are willing to part with six hundred bucks for a table, too, but they are likely paying it to a stranger, via an app.

Ben Leventhal, who co-founded the reservation site Resy, in 2014, agreed to meet me for dinner to fill me in on the new restaurant-booking landscape. He left Resy four years ago, after American Express bought the company, and he has since created a customer-loyalty app called Blackbird, which doesn’t make bookings but rewards customers with the restaurant equivalent of frequent-flyer points. Earlier, he’d told me, “The average diner in New York City is massively disadvantaged, and they don’t even know it. It’s as if they’re bringing a knife to a gunfight.” He’d suggested we meet at Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar, on East Fifty-fifth Street—one of the most sought-after tables in town. (He booked it.) I found him, wearing a trim blue suit and sitting at a table by a fireplace in the equestrian-themed bar. (You also need a reservation to get a drink; I watched as a hostess in a camel-hair coat gently turned away a well-dressed couple who looked unaccustomed to being disappointed.) Leventhal ordered a tequila and jumped right in, “mapping the reservations ecosystem,” as he called it, on a cocktail napkin.

His list of possible approaches went like this: phone call, e-mail, Instagram D.M., in-person (“Before you leave a place, you could make another reservation. It’s a great way to get one”), texting someone you know (the maître d’, a chef, even servers and line cooks), hotel concierges (some residential buildings—432 Park Avenue, 15 Hudson Yards—have their own), élite credit-card partners (“Chase has tables, Amex has tables”), membership reservation clubs like Dorsia, new apps (TableOne claims to show every available publicly listed reservation at the most in-demand restaurants, in real time), secondary marketplaces (in the manner of ticket scalpers, Web sites like Cita Marketplace and Appointment Trader will sell you a reservation, often procured by a bot, usually made in someone else’s name), the restaurant’s Web site, and online-reservation systems (OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Yelp). Leventhal described this last category, by far the most common way to book a table, as “the land of democracy, the land of first come, first served.” Then he smirked and said, “In theory.”

Nearby, a woman in red sipped champagne; across the room, a young woman wept. A manager strolling by recognized Leventhal and asked about the inked-up cocktail napkin. “Are you doing math?” she asked.

“We’re trying to figure out how reservations work,” he said.

“It’s an art, and a game of Tetris,” the manager, a blond woman in her thirties, said. “Some people really get off on saying no. When we have to say no, it feels terrible. People say, ‘What if I was with Leonardo DiCaprio?’ And I’m, like, ‘ Are you?’ ”

Downstairs in the dining room, the maître d’, Nelly Moudime, greeted Leventhal warmly and asked him where he wanted to sit. When Resy started, the app sold reservations for about ten per cent of a diner’s average check. (The Times called it “the next step in the devolution of New York hospitality.”) After public outcry, Resy changed its model: restaurants pay a small monthly fee; diners don’t pay for reservations. “But we now have a customer who fundamentally believes there’s a price for everything,” Leventhal said, frowning. “Not everything should be purchasable—which makes people’s heads explode. You can’t call up Polo Bar and say, ‘How much will it cost to get in?’ ”

You can, however, call up Polo Bar, wait fifty minutes on hold, make a reservation, and then resell it online. (Before meeting me for dinner, Leventhal texted me a screenshot of a Cita page, where a five-o’clock table at Polo Bar was listed for four hundred dollars.)

Moudime, who wore shimmering silver-sequin pants, dropped by our table to chat. She said that a woman had recently called for a last-minute reservation, saying that her mother had just recovered from cancer and wanted to celebrate at Polo Bar. At 5:30 P.M. , three young people showed up for the table: no mom, no cancer. “We still took care of them,” she said. “It’s the new world we live in. And, I think, maybe, we created that monster.”

On a recent Thursday morning, I stopped by Roscioli. Like many hot restaurants, Roscioli usually has tables for famous people, investors, other chefs, and regulars. But most are snapped up on Resy as soon as they become available. Amelia Giordano, Roscioli’s reservationist, invited me to sit with her in the empty restaurant, the walls lined with bottles of wine, and watch her iPad’s screen as the tables filled up for fourteen days hence.

At 10 A.M. sharp, someone booked a four-top, for 5:45 P.M. By 10:01, there were seven reservations, including two for birthdays. Names started madly flashing on the screen. 10:03: “Everything but the later tables have booked,” Giordano said. 10:06: fully committed.

At least a handful of those reservations were made by people who would never cross Roscioli’s threshold.

In May, 2021, a thirty-three-year-old software engineer named Jonas Frey couldn’t get a reservation to renew his driver’s license at the Nevada D.M.V., so he built a Web site to solve the problem. “I thought, ‘How is it possible that I can’t pay for a spot in line?’ ” he told me. That July, after scoring a twenty-two-thousand-dollar break on rent from his landlord, maxing out his credit cards, and staying up all night coding in his underwear for two months (“My wife was just bringing me Red Bull and pizza,” he said), Frey launched Appointment Trader, an online marketplace for people to buy and sell reservations—everything from private shopping experiences (the Hermès store in Paris), doctors’ appointments (a hot commodity in Miami and Beverly Hills), and tables at restaurants all over the world.

The Web site resembles an artifact from the early days of the Internet: with its flashy banners and simple menus, it almost looks like eBay circa 1995. “We get a lot of smack for it being ugly,” Frey said, adding that it hasn’t hurt business. Appointment Trader cleared almost six million dollars in reservation sales during the past twelve months, a more than twofold increase from last year. New users create an account with their e-mail address to buy or sell reservations; sellers compete to earn “Traderpoints” and “medals,” which allow them to upload more reservations and thereby make more money. Frey takes a twenty- to thirty-per-cent commission.

Prospective buyers browse a list of restaurants organized by locale. Frey designed an algorithm that determines the most popular places based on reservation requests; in New York, 4 Charles, Tatiana (an Afro-Caribbean place at Lincoln Center), and COQODAQ (Flatiron Korean fried chicken) currently top the list. Users can click around a glitchy Google Maps plug-in, or type a restaurant’s name in the search bar. You can buy a limited selection of “instantly available reservations”—an indoor Friday-night four-top at Don Angie, a modern Village trattoria, for two hundred and twenty-five dollars—or place a bid, for a restaurant and a time of your choosing. Then individual resellers (for instance, FlirtatiousCanvas69, ExpeditiousFork45) can accept the bid and fulfill it by any means necessary. The buyer is informed of what name to give when he or she shows up to claim the table. (This can lead to awkward moments at the host stand, particularly for couples on dates: men sometimes are obliged to give other women’s names and fumble for phone numbers—the name and number on the purchased reservation.)

The afternoon before I met Leventhal at Polo Bar, I logged in to Appointment Trader, which recommended that I place a “bid” of at least three hundred and fifty-five dollars for a two-top there. I started by offering a couple hundred: “🥱 Your bid price is below average,” the site shot back. Then I upped the bid to the recommended amount: “🤖 Did we say warmed up? Now you got those mercenaries, bots and hustlers on 🔥🔥🔥.”

So who are the resellers, mercenaries, and hustlers who provide Appointment Trader with prime tables? Some are people who sit with OpenTable or Resy pulled up on their laptops every morning, amassing reservations in various names. Some are kids who borrow their parents’ Amex black cards, telephone Amex’s Centurion concierge, and book hard-to-get tables that are set aside for card users. Others call in favors with friends in the industry, bribe maître d’s, or e-mail reservationists with made-up stories—a diehard foodie visiting town (“we have always been desperate to come and try your delicious looking Lasagna!”), or pretending to be the Queen of Morocco or the sister of the King of Saudi Arabia. The chef Eric Ripert, of Le Bernardin, widely considered one of the best restaurants in the world, told me that it’s not uncommon for callers to scream at and even threaten his reservationists.

Alex Eisler, a sophomore at Brown University who studies applied math and computer science, regularly uses fake phone numbers and e-mail addresses to make reservations. When he calls Polo Bar, he told me, “Sometimes they recognize my voice, so I have to do different accents. I have to act like a girl sometimes.” He switched into a bad falsetto: “I’m, like, ‘Hiiii, is it possible to book a reservation?’ I have a few Resy accounts that have female names.” His recent sales on Appointment Trader, where his screen name is GloriousSeed75, include a lunch table at Maison Close, which he sold for eight hundred and fifty-five dollars, and a reservation at Carbone, the Village red-sauce place frequented by the Rolex-and-Hermès crowd, which fetched a thousand and fifty dollars. Last year, he made seventy thousand dollars reselling reservations.

Another reseller, PerceptiveWash44, told me that he makes reservations while watching TV. He was standing outside the break room at the West Coast hotel where he works as a concierge. “It’s, like, some people play Candy Crush on their phone. I play ‘Dinner Reservations,’ ” he said. “It’s just a way to pass the time.” Last year, he made eighty thousand dollars reselling reservations. He’s good at anticipating what spots will be most in demand, and his profile on the site ranks him as having a “99% Positive Sales History” over his last two hundred transactions. It also notes that he made almost two thousand reservations that never sold—a restaurateur’s nightmare.

Some resellers use bots—basically, computers that are faster at hitting the refresh button than you are. Several bots might be simultaneously checking the app, ten or even a hundred times per second, twenty-four hours a day, until one finds the eight-o’clock table at Bangkok Supper Club that it’s been programmed to grab. Instead of using a keyboard or mouse, the bot programmatically executes the reservation app’s underlying code. Some resellers subscribe to such sites as Resy Sniper (fifty bucks a month), which uses custom-built bots to snag tough reservations; some use open-source code posted on GitHub or write their own.

In addition to hotel concierges, restaurant employees (maître d’s, hosts, line cooks) also sell tables on Appointment Trader, risking their jobs for quick cash. Frey explained, “You’re essentially, virtually, greasing the palm—without ever meeting the guy.”

The origin of the restaurant reservation is murkier than the origin of the restaurant. As Rebecca L. Spang writes in “ The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture ,” in the eighteenth century, dining out in Paris or London meant going to a tavern where dinner was served at a common table, until the food ran out—first come, first served. In the U.S., reservations began to be more common sometime after the turn of the century, when it became popular to dine out for special occasions: Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Election Night. More commonly, wealthy men “reserved” private rooms at restaurants to entertain guests. (In New York, people vied to host the most elaborate private dinners: at one, the center of a huge table at Delmonico’s was removed and replaced with a water tank, for a centerpiece of four swans on loan from Prospect Park.)

In the twentieth century, the growth of the middle class, suburbanization, and the advent of the newspaper restaurant review made telephone reservations the norm—until the Internet changed everything. In the late nineties, after movies, rental cars, hotels, and airlines had moved advance booking online, Web sites like Savvydiner.com started brokering restaurant reservations. Diners would click a button, prompting a Savvydiner employee to telephone a restaurant’s maître d’, who scrawled the name in his book, next to all the other people who weren’t yet precipitating the end of an era.

By 1999, a crop of new Web sites—RSVIP.com, Reservemytable.com, Foodline.com, OpenTable.com—were competing to automate the process. Tavern on the Green’s owner, Warner LeRoy, started taking reservations on the restaurant’s Web site. Other restaurateurs were skeptical. OpenTable charged restaurants a monthly fee, plus a dollar for every guest seated. Asked by a reporter what he thought about online reservations, the director of operations at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe scoffed, “There is no substitute for a kind, human voice on the phone.’’ But Meyer became an early investor in OpenTable, and, later, in Resy. Last year, he invested in an A.I.-powered reservation platform called SevenRooms, which most people haven’t heard about because it’s been designed for diners not to know it exists.

To be clear: every night in New York, there are hundreds of perfectly good seven-thirty tables available at perfectly good restaurants. For a lot of diners, though, the pleasure is in the scarcity; and the smaller, noisier, and more crowded a restaurant is, the better. Some restaurateurs claim to hate the buzz that comes with being popular. Ariel Arce, who operates Roscioli, told me, “If it’s a room full of people who just flock there for a reservation, the vibe ain’t gonna be very fun.” Roni Mazumdar, who owns the Unapologetic Foods group (Semma, Dhamaka, Adda Indian Canteen), told me, “We only value one thing: those who care about us. How do we know you care about us? When you show up and you are cordial to the staff.” He showed me an e-mail with the subject line “Urgent VVIP Request,” from a high-end concierge service that also brokers yacht sales (mission statement: “Dedicated to understanding everything you want and giving you more than you imagined”), demanding a five-top for an extremely powerful person, who “represents Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Rock, Katherine Heigl and Tony Hawk.” Mazumdar’s team sent a reply saying that the client could try to reserve through Resy.

In 2022, Justin and Hailey Bieber were politely turned away by Carbone when they showed up without a reservation. In February, Hailey and her entourage had dinner at 4 Charles, after a private reservationist named Nicky DiMaggio secured them a table. DiMaggio, who charges between five hundred and a thousand dollars per reservation, owns a sanitation business with more than forty garbage trucks. He got into the reservation game when he was a teen-ager, after his cousin got him a reservation at Rao’s, the impregnable mob-flavored restaurant in East Harlem. He usually works with referrals. “My client list is, like, the N.B.A., Megan Fox,” he told me. (DiMaggio also claims that he has worked with reps for Serena Williams , a son of Italy’s Vice-President, a manager at a Rolex store, and a lot of Goldman Sachs guys.) DiMaggio, who is thirty-three, books the tables in his own name (to protect his clients’ privacy, he says). Last year, he made more than a thousand reservations at the city’s trendiest restaurants; he claims to have cozied up to the owners and managers, who set aside tables for him. In reality, he has used Appointment Trader, just like everyone else.

In Bret Easton Ellis’s novel “ American Psycho ,” the sociopathic Wall Street protagonist is obsessed with a fictional restaurant called Dorsia—a place so exclusive as to be almost mythical. A new, members-only app by the same name promises to deliver what the status-mad bros in the novel cannot secure for themselves: a tough table. Aspiring users download the app and allow it to scan their contacts (“The fastest way to get in is with your network,” the site declares), and then answer a few questions: employer, job title, Instagram handle, LinkedIn URL. Dorsia is trying to figure out if you are the kind of person who will shell out.

If you pass muster (I only did, I think, because I had saved the numbers of a lot of chefs in my contacts while reporting this piece), you can log on to Dorsia and search for the solidly booked restaurant of your choice. (You enter your credit-card information immediately, of course.) The first reservation I spotted was an eight-o’clock Saturday two-top at Carbone; there was also a slew of prime-time tables at Le Gratin, one of Daniel Boulud ’s offshoots. Then I read the fine print: the table at Carbone would cost me a thousand dollars—not as a booking fee but as a prepayment for the meal. For two of us to get our money’s worth, we’d have to down three plates of Calamari Marco, three orders of lobster ravioli, two veal Marsalas, a funghi trifolati , and two bottles of Barolo Gramolere.

Restaurants that utilize Dorsia see it as a way to collect data about their customers, and also to increase revenue by guaranteeing that those customers are big spenders. Other minimum prepayments listed on the app: two hundred and eighty-five dollars per person at Le Pavillon, Boulud’s midtown seafood palace; two hundred and thirty-five at Marea, on Central Park South; and three hundred at Torrisi (on a Monday), a sister restaurant to Carbone. This summer, as Dorsia’s members go on vacation, the app promises to be ready with tables at the chicest restaurants in Ibiza, in Mykonos, and along the French Riviera and the Amalfi Coast.

In promotional materials for restaurateurs considering listing their tables on the app, Dorsia claims that it saves twenty minutes per party (no waiting for the check) and so helps turn tables faster—a key to restaurant solvency. (Gabriel Stulman, of Sailor, which is not on Dorsia, told me that he needs to turn his tables three times a night to make money.) Still, several restaurateurs who have opted out told me that they find the colossal-prepay concept unseemly, in part because it encourages binge eating. “It’s psychotic,” one owner said. “We don’t want to put people in that situation.”

Dorsia understands that, like the N.S.A. and TikTok, successful restaurants know more about us than we want to imagine. How many times have you eaten there? Are you a friendly regular, an asshole neighbor, an expense-account out-of-towner? Do you prefer a cocktail or the house white? Do you linger after coffee? In the old days, much of that information—and your wife’s birthday, your secretary’s name—lived inside a maître d’s head. Many restaurants have always kept handwritten notes on their guests, relying on abbreviations: “H.S.M.” (heavyset man), “eagle” (bald guest), “o-o” (wears glasses), “l.o.l.” (little old lady). These days, guest notes are “data,” which tech platforms help restaurants keep track of. Oenophiles might be labelled “W.W.” (wine whale), or, simply, “drops coin.” If you got a surprise appetizer on the house, you might have been marked down with “S.F.N.” (something for nothing), or “N.P.R.” (nice people get rewards). Did you sit for hours over a bowl of soup, tip poorly, get wasted, or shush the young family sitting at the next table? You might be demoted to “P.N.G.” (persona non grata) or “D.N.S.” (do not serve) status.

Resy has a data-driven feature called Notify, which puts diners on a waiting list for a restaurant. (OpenTable and SevenRooms added similar features to compete.) Using it is a little like buying a fistful of lottery tickets. Diners add themselves to lots of restaurants’ Notify lists for a certain night with the hope of scoring just one. The moment a host decides that a table is a no-show, or if there’s a cancellation, a push notification—“New Table Alert”—is sent to everyone on the Notify list for that night. The table goes to whoever claims it first on the app. Curious, I added my name to the Notify list at every fully booked restaurant in my neighborhood, over a six-week period. I didn’t get a single e-mail or notification.

I thought I just had bad luck, until a conversation with Resy’s C.E.O., Pablo Rivero, clarified things. Over dinner at Txikito, a buzzy Basque restaurant in Chelsea, he explained that I would likely always be near the bottom of the Notify queue. After American Express acquired Resy, in 2019, anyone with a fancy Amex card—Centurion, Platinum, Reserve, or Aspire—has an advantage. If you have one of these cards (Centurion: ten-thousand-dollar initiation fee, five thousand dollars per year), Rivero said, “You will get a Resy notification before other people do.” (He also said, somewhat puzzlingly, “What we are trying to do is, honestly, democratize dining a bit more.”)

Some restaurants sort their virtual waiting lists themselves, without help from Amex. These managers cherry-pick V.I.P.s and regulars from their Notify queues. SevenRooms, Resy’s newest competitor, has a tool that has largely automated that process: an algorithm picks which diners get priority push notifications about late openings. The criteria include how often a diner visits, how big his or her tabs are, how much wine and dessert are ordered, and tip size.

Joel Montaniel, SevenRooms’ C.E.O., told me, “It’s the system that’s automatically tagging and segmenting people, because we know the human mind is generally limited, and not every customer is going to get caught and tagged appropriately.” (Restaurateurs can also input guest notes manually.) SevenRooms scans customers’ bills, tracks referrals, and monitors guests’ online reviews; people who frequently cancel or no-show can be required to provide a credit-card deposit. In January, the percentage of restaurants on Resy that charged cancellation fees had grown more than fourfold from pre-pandemic levels.

Restaurants also want to know about your guests. Debby Soo, the C.E.O. of OpenTable, told me, “It’s not just the person who booked. If there are four people, they want to know all four of those people.” Diner profiles and guest notes are useful for deciding who lands a table and also where to seat people—Siberia or a cozy booth? (A new startup, Tablz, offers diners the opportunity to pay between five and a hundred dollars to reserve their favorite tables at select New York restaurants.)

At Polo Bar, Leventhal had talked a lot about the challenge that restaurants face in deciding who to let in the door: “We need restaurants to be democratic,” he said (a sentiment I heard over and over). “But they can’t be—in order for them to be sustainable. The margins are so thin, and there’s not enough room for everyone.” That’s why restaurants like to identify and reward V.I.P. and regular customers. If a restaurant deems you important enough—and decides to label you as a “V.I.P.,” “P.P.X.,” ( personne particulièrement extraordinaire ), “reg,” “$$$$” or “soi” (short for soigné) on its in-house system—you might notice a little gold-and-black crown emoji and more available tables next time you sign in to Resy.

“Good operators know the best practice is saying yes, but how do you say yes while maximizing revenue?” Leventhal said. “It’s about saying yes to the person who’s going to spend the most money over the long haul.”

Moudime, the Polo Bar maître d’, agreed—to a point. “Check average is good. But it’s not everything,” she said. “You’ve got your big wine spenders, but do they come every night? No. Does a celebrity come every night? No! A restaurant works by an everyday person coming regularly.”

Your Resy, OpenTable, and SevenRooms profiles follow you around town, like Uber reviews, or chlamydia. If you ordered a bottle of 1968 Mastroberardino Taurasi at Carbone, the staff at Major Food Group’s dozens of affiliated restaurants—Dirty French, ZZ’s Club—can find out and fuss over you accordingly.

Guest data is not shared between restaurants with different owners, but platforms like SevenRooms and Blackbird want to change that. SevenRooms’ Montaniel envisions partnerships between restaurant groups to “make the world a private member club for everyone.” Leventhal’s solution, at Blackbird, is to reward diners with something like frequent-flier points, which can be redeemed for cocktails and appetizers at any participating restaurant. (Blackbird’s slogan: “Be a regular, everywhere.”) The company, which uses blockchain technology, charges a fee to participating restaurants and some member diners, and publishes an insiderish newsletter called “The Supersonic.”

The desire to amass data on diners is one reason that restaurateurs hate the resale sites. When you buy a reservation from Cita or Appointment Trader, you have to give the maître d’ a fake name to claim your table. How does Polo Bar know to give you a complimentary Martini, or what your water preference or food allergies might be, when they don’t even know your real name? (In January, 4 Charles e-mailed one diner whom it suspected of dealing in bot-acquired reservations, “We will require photo I.D.”)

This kind of protocol risks making diners feel like they’re in a T.S.A.-screening line. Restaurants don’t like it either. “It’s bad for business,” Eric Ripert, at Le Bernardin, told me. “Every day, we spend hours trying to track down the bots and the fake reservations. Last week, we caught eight fake reservations.” Unusual e-mail addresses and disconnected phone lines are a dead giveaway; reservationists always call or text to confirm. He went on, “If you have tables that are no-shows, the profit of the night is done. So, we cannot lose reservations!”

According to the market-research firm IBISWorld, over the last decade, profit margins at American restaurants have languished at around four per cent. Gitnux, another research firm, reported that high-end restaurants may only see margins of two per cent. Ripert laughed and said, “Clients shouldn’t know we have slim margins. They should come here, have an experience, and leave very happy.” Other restaurateurs told me they wished their diners understood that every minute a restaurant is open is money earned or money lost; four out of five restaurants close within five years. “We’re constantly bleeding money,” Jenn Saesue, of the perennially booked Bangkok Supper Club, told me. “I basically have a small army,” she said, of her hundred and twenty-eight employees. “These people are relying on us.”

When resellers offer reservations online, they’re gambling that people will buy them: three hundred and twenty dollars for a four-o’clock Monday table at Via Carota (risky); four hundred and eighty bucks for a table at Semma on a Friday night (an almost sure bet). When the reservations go unsold, it’s the restaurant that loses.

Appointment Trader’s Jonas Frey told me that he penalizes resellers when they have unsold listings by withholding access to the site. A nightmare reseller, he said, could be a “script kiddie,” who uses an army of bots to “book a thousand reservations with the hopes of selling fifty of them.”

A few hot New York restaurants have stuck with the old-school reservation protocol. At Eulalie, in Tribeca, a woman answers the phone and writes your name in a reservation book—no e-mail, no OpenTable. The best way into Frog Club is to write to a secret e-mail address. But it is rare these days to find a happening restaurant that does not take reservations at all. Lucali, the thin-crust-pizza place in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens, might be the most famous: Jay-Z once called the pies the best in Brooklyn. Mark Iacono, who runs the place, told me, “It’s first come, first served. People start lining up at two o’clock.” By four o’clock, there’s a line around the block to book tables for that evening; the first seating is at five. I stopped by on a chilly afternoon in March, at 2 P.M. , and found a half-dozen people waiting. At the head of the line, a cannabis-company executive named Ben Zachs said, “I’m first! I got here at 12:37 P.M. Today’s my wife’s birthday, and this is her favorite restaurant.”

Second in line was a woman named Alex, who had on pink sneakers and socks, and third was Tim Kimura, who wore an eye patch and a black shemagh . Gigi Principe, an aspiring actress who likes to bake, was fifth. She said that she hoped to be first in line at Lucali’s one day. “If it’s a Saturday, that’s baller’s gold,” she said. The line grew. A man named Baron Tremayne Caple, who had on a dirty pink hoodie, had rushed over to Lucali after cleaning someone’s office that morning.

At 4:05 P.M. , the restaurant’s host, Alex Perez-Cuomo, stepped outside and started writing names and numbers in a notebook. “Cash only! B.Y.O.B.!” she yelled. “You have the table for an hour. I need you all here to be seated.” Inside, Iacono sat by the window, in a white T-shirt, watching the line. “It’s just easier,” he said. “And the line’s become a thing—it’s become part of the experience.” By four-forty, a hundred and fifty covers had been accounted for, and only a few ten-o’clock tables were left.

By five o’clock, the restaurant was jammed with its first wave of customers, who were excitedly considering what toppings to order—mushrooms, sweet peppers, pepperoni. The man with the eye patch, Kimura, wasn’t among them. Neither was Alex or Gigi Principe. It turned out that they were all employees of the same line-sitting company, called Same Ole Line Dudes. “I’ve been called here to wait at least a hundred times,” Kimura had told me. The going rate for an afternoon in line at Lucali is fifty-five dollars, a percentage of which goes to the company. Baron Tremayne Caple wasn’t ordering pizza either. His table had gone, for a hundred and twenty dollars, to a person named Robin, who’d hired him on TaskRabbit. ♦

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‘Forbidden Broadway’ Scraps Summer Broadway Run, Citing Crowded Season

The parody show was scheduled to begin performances in July at the Helen Hayes Theater.

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By Michael Paulson

In a sign that there are not enough investors and ticket buyers to sustain all of the Broadway shows now onstage and in the works, the producers of “Forbidden Broadway” said Friday that they were canceling a planned summer run.

The scrapped production, “ Forbidden Broadway on Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song ,” was announced in February and was to be the first Broadway venture for the satirical revue, which has been performed periodically since 1982, mostly Off Broadway but also on tour. The show, consisting of comedic sketches that parody Broadway hits (and misses), has been frequently rewritten to remain reasonably timely and topical; the Broadway run was to feature a number of Sondheim spoofs, reflecting the heightened interest in his work since his death.

In a statement, the producers, Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey Stroock McFarland , called the move a postponement, and cited the volume of offerings on Broadway — there are currently 36 shows running, 12 of which opened in a nine-day stretch before the Tony-eligibility season ended Thursday night.

“The Broadway landscape is enormously crowded at this moment,” the producers’ statement said, “and while we adore Forbidden Broadway, we are disappointed that the show will not open at the Hayes on Broadway this summer.”

The show, written by Gerard Alessandrini, was to begin previews July 15 and to open Aug. 5 at the Helen Hayes Theater, and was to be capitalized for $3.2 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is not clear if the producers had successfully raised all that money, and ticket sales, which began earlier this month, had been slow.

“Without getting into the details of the financials or sales, it is self evident by looking at the current offerings on Broadway and their sales that in this incredibly crowded environment without recent precedent, the title would not have been served by launching at this time,” the producers said in a written answer to questions about the show’s economics.

This is the second show to cancel a Broadway production this year; in February, the producers of a planned run of Rob Madge’s “My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)” announced that they were postponing that production less than three weeks before previews were to begin.

As for Madge, the performer is planning to take “My Son’s a Queer” back to the Edinburgh Fringe, this summer . But first, next month Madge is planning a show in London, reflecting on the Broadway disappointment. The title, of course, is “ Regards to Broadway .”

Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times. More about Michael Paulson