Context: A handful of restaurants in New York City are notorious for impossible reservations. People will do crazy things for the prospect of eating at one of these establishments: setting notifications months in advance, enrolling in credit cards with concierge service, and even purchasing tables via auction. Over the years, locals have become dismayed at the crooked tactics people use to secure tables, blaming platforms like Resy for “selling out” the local dining scene.
Problem: New Yorkers can no longer eat at their favorite neighborhood spots, as hype has made them completely unattainable.
Insight: Feeling heard can have even more impact than having one’s ‘problem’ solved directly.
Idea: The top 10 restaurants in New York City offer takeout to New Yorkers exclusively through DoorDash for one day only: Valentine’s Day 2026.
Announced through a series of print and packaging, championing New Yorkers for the one thing tourists can’t claim: a New York zip code.
0.01%
The estimated odds of getting a Valentine’s Day 2026 reservation at Rao’s NYC.
You’re statistically more likely to be struck by lighting. Or win the lottery.
The historic Italian dining establishment has served an exclusive 10 tables for 124 years.
During this time, they’ve only offered takeout once: during the 2019 Covid Pandemic.
After Covid, the restaurant reverted to its longstanding dine-in–only model.
Meaning: you can’t order Raos. You can’t eat at Raos. The closest you can get to the mysterious Neopolitan wonderland is a jar of marinara from your nearest Whole Foods.
Dining at Rao’s New York on Valentine’s Day is one of the rarest reservation opportunities in the world.
Do we wait around for another force majeure to bring the taste of Raos to the longing public?
Or do we have a deserving cause sitting right under our noses?
PRINT SERIES
While offering a reservation might be out of our control, what we can do is champion New Yorkers for simply being New Yorkers.
Doordash users enter the Impossible Reservation Lottery with one requirement: their New York zip code.
100 random winners will receive a special one-time only link to a private DoorDash storefront, featuring a pre-fixe dinner menu for two, available exclusively for takeout.
For New Yorkers. Only New Yorkers.
WHY IT WORKS
DoorDash makes zero changes to their working app infrastructure,
simply leveraging over a century of acclaim by offering the one thing Raos doesn't: delivery.
The entire campaign runs for one day only, without offering a single discount code.
Why is it successful? The sheer prospect of tasting Raos is priceless.
The chosen few eagerly flock to the DoorDash app, yearning to purchase so much more than a pricey Italian dinner for two.
New Yorkers know they’re not actually getting “access” to these restaurants—
but sometimes, acknowledgement speaks louder.
A physical reservation isn’t the deepest need.
What New Yorkers really crave is validation; that the system is absurd, that the chase is exhausting, that they’re still worthy members of society even if they don’t secure the Saturday night booth at Torrisi.
This is where an opportunity for a brand emerges.
Simply being recognized as a legitimate insider carries emotional weight.
When package design speaks directly to an audience with wry, hyper-local insights,
a pizza box suddenly delivers a feeling of exclusivity, fairness, and reassurance.
