The path forward, with benefits for restaurants and our entrepreneur here, is this: see if people are willing to pay for reservations at in-demand restaurants. If so- great. You clearly can't scale this without getting restaurants in on the game. So- partner with the restaurants. Charge $20 for a reservation. Give the restaurant $10. The restaurant made extra money, their no-show rate goes down, the diners already have skin in the game and are likely to spend more than average patrons, and our main man here makes some cash.

To me it seems like an innocent-enough experiment. If he wants to scale it, he'll have to make it work for restaurants too. And if he does- great! Margin-stressed restaurants get an extra source of income.