UES Eatery Googles Diners To See If They're Table-Worthy: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side restaurant has implemented a new technique to keep its seats filled with the neighborhood's rich and famous: background checks.

Staff at Fleming by Le Bilboquet are instructed not to confirm any reservations until a Google search has been run on prospective diners trying to book a table at the swanky East 62nd Street and Madison Avenue eatery, the New York Post first reported. The snooping ensures that the restaurant remains a sanctuary for "special people only," one anonymous employee told the Post.

Regulars at the restaurant include Robert De Niro, Paul McCartney and Ivanka Trump, according to the report. Common folk need not apply.

Fleming by Le Bilboquet is a spinoff of the exclusive Upper East Side hotspot Le Bilboquet. Business partners Ronald Perelman, a billionaire businessman, and Philippe Delgrange, a French restaurateur, opened the small eatery in 2018 to resemble the original Le Bilboquet, which sat about 30 people, Eater New York reported. Following a relocation in 2013, Le Bilboquet's current space seats about 100 people.

A request for comment sent to Fleming was not immediately returned and a Patch reporter found the doors locked Friday afternoon.

Fleming's Googling policy isn't the first time an Upper East Side restaurant has gotten creative to maintain an elite appearance. Ritzy Madison Avenue Italian hotspot Nello banned single women from eating at its bar earlier this year in an attempted crackdown on prostitution.

Read the full New York Post report here.