r/ChubbyClubOfficial

I've been to Chubby Cattle a few times over the last year in the Bay Area with some friends, and it's been a mixed bag. Almost every time I've tried the Pleasanton location, I show up 10-30 minutes after the waitlist opens, and by the time I get there, it's either already closed for the day or there's a line of 100+ people, meaning I likely wouldn't get seated even by close.

I get that its a popular location with limited space, but making my way out to CC and the not being able to get onto the waitlist, and with over a year since they opened is frustrating to say the least. To be fair the CC bay area team have tried to address this as they'll post on Instagram when the waitlist closes for the day. The problem is timing as those posts tend to go up to 2 hours after the list actually closed, so by the time you see it, you've either already made the trip or written off a day that might've actually been fine. The Yelp app isn't much better as it has a similar gap, it doesn't give you a clear "closed" signal at all. The join option just greys out, and the estimated wait graph ticks up every few minutes, but no clear callout the waitlist is actually open but not open online, so there's no clean point where it flips from "still open, just busy" to "done for the day." You're left guessing off a greyed-out screen, and there's obviously no alert when the shift happens. One suggestion i came up with is a Discord bot that sends a message in a channel when the waitlist actually closes instead of waiting for a post from the CC Bay area account. This would fix the "I drove out 1 hour to get on the waitlist for nothing" experience I've had in the last few attempted visits.

A feature on top of that which would be nice is a bot that has a more accurate "Est wait time" compared to what Yelp suggests. This could be implemented a few ways, but an app or bot that shows the Est wait times for bar seating and parties of 1-2, 3-6, 6+ would help understand the true wait times when the waitlist is still open. . I think this is worth considering though this may expose some data that Chubby may not be willing to share.

TL;DR: Been to Chubby Cattle Pleasanton several times over the past year and almost every visit, I show up 20-30 min after the waitlist opens and it's already closed or has a line of over 100+ people waiting to get on the waitlist. Instagram posts from CC bay area about WL closures usually come hours late, and Yelp doesn't actually tell me when the waitlist is actually closed for the night. Suggestion: a Discord bot that watches for when the WL actually closes and sends a message when the location is closed for the day. Nice to have: A more accurate estimated wait times by party size based to better understand how long the wait actually is.