Thanks to its unfortunate location, on a bleak corner between neighborhoods, there is no wait for a table, no tense negotiation with the hostess.

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OpenTable, a website, allows people to book a table without having to plead with a snooty hostess.

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At the Cracker Barrel restaurant, the hostess knows him as the polite man in pajamas who asks for a corner table, where he can keep a lookout.

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