Inside the House is a DCist feature offering an insider’s view of fine dining issues by the hostess at a D.C. restaurant.

By DCist contributor Nadya S. Nikiforova

It’s probably been awhile since you wrote a check — because you pay all your bills online. You look up directions on MapQuest instead of looking at a paper map all the time. You might have even met your sweetie on match.com. So, it’s no surprise that when it comes to making reservations, you double-click instead of dial. OpenTable, anyone?

The subscription-based OpenTable online system connects diners to restaurants that opt to become available for online bookings. To begin, restaurant management compiles a list of open slots at fifteen-minute increments — let’s say five parties of two, three parties of four, and one party of eight — based on the number of tables in the dining room and on what they think the kitchen can handle without breaking out in hives. After the list is submitted to the OpenTable, it becomes available for web-based reservations. In addition to booking tables, users have a nifty option to note any special requests for a particular kind of table, their dietary preferences and anniversaries or birthdays.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And because it’s so simple, OpenTable works best if your reservation is a routine booking. But for anything remotely special, complicated or in need of human intelligence or special accommodation, your best bet is still to call and talk to an actual, live, breathing person. And as a hostess, I’ll tell you why.