Industry watchers estimate that the local restaurant business is up about 10 percent this year, and there is other anecdotal evidence to suggest that many eateries around town are filling up. So the Business Journal asks:

Do you think restaurants getting more crowded these days?

Johnny Levin

Vice President

William Morris

There are a lot of great new restaurants, fueled by a resurgence in the economy, and they always will be hard to get into. But if you’re a regular, I think those restaurants will accommodate you on short notice. I do think restaurants are more crowded, but the good customers will always get a table that’s one of the rewards.

Joel Alpers

Teacher

It seems like they are. There’s always a changing handful of restaurants that are hard to get into, and those seem to run in three- or four-month cycles. The ones that are hard to get into are really hard to get into. Then there are some places that don’t even take reservations. A lot of the brunch places don’t take reservations. And you always have to wait.

Dale Goldsmith [pic4-26nm]

Partner

Greenburg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP

It depends on when you compare it to restaurants are definitely more crowded today than six or seven years ago. People have more money to spend today. But they’re not more crowded than six months ago. It’s still tough to get a Friday reservation at a good restaurant if you call on Thursday it’s been that way for some time. Even in the depths of the recession the really good restaurants were hard to get into.

Susan Kamei

Executive Director

The Urban Land Institute, L.A. District Council

I’m an early-morning person, and we like to have breakfast meetings, so we don’t have any problem getting reservations at 7 a.m. As for lunch or dinner, we’re downtown, and we have not had any difficulty in making reservations. For lunch, our folks seem to like Caf & #233; Pinot, or McCormick and Schmick’s, or Cucina Grill some of these places don’t even need reservations.

Carman

Christian Music Artist

Yes, especially if you don’t have reservations, you’re just waiting everywhere. I eat out every night, and I wish they would come up with a more innovative system for making reservations even if you had to guarantee a reservation with a credit card, then if you don’t show up you would get billed, like a doctor’s appointment. People would be more inclined to follow through on reservations. The people who are very serious about eating out won’t mind paying a few extra bucks to be where they want to be.

Gary Shar

CEO

Shar Visions Group

I don’t think so. I typically stay away from the trendy restaurants and I find the ones that I go to, like Toscana in Brentwood, Beau Rivage in Malibu, and the Manhattan Wonton in West L.A, are not hard to get reservations at. It’s not out of control.