Brigid Bergen: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Brigid Bergen from the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom. We are going to take your calls on whether your socializing schedule has changed. Have you turned into an early bird? I for one have. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 2120-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. A little over a week ago, the New York Times published an article titled In The City That Never Sleeps, Some Doors Now Close at 10 p.m. The Chronicle has some establishments that have been known for being open for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, are now closing a lot earlier.

[chuckles] Even the 24-hour fitness in Q Gardens closes at 10:00, apparently. Maybe they need to change their name. In the New York Times Style magazine, another article from last week sported the headline For New Yorkers, 6 p.m. Is The New 8 p.m. We want to focus on dining and socializing. One of our producers was telling us how she's been struggling to get dinner reservations for 5:30 or 6:00 PM. Those time slots are just too much in demand lately. Does that sound at all familiar to you? Give us a call. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 2120-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. Tell us if you've been making much earlier dinner plans than you used to pre-pandemic. When did that change?

Are you trying to get those coveted 6:00 PM dinner reservations when you used to go at maybe 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 PM, and if so, what would you say is causing this shift for you? We also want to hear from restaurant and bar workers or restaurant and bar owners, have you noticed more clientele wanting to dine or drink earlier in the evening? Has your establishment adjusted its hours or staffing to reflect earlier preferences? As that article from the Times noted and conversations amongst ourselves have revealed, there seem to be a couple of factors behind this earlier shift in dining.

For instance, if you're working a hybrid schedule, or you are back working in person full time in an office, maybe you're more interested in going straight to dinner and drinks after work instead of going home first and then going back out because for some people, once you're back home, you're not going back out again. Is that you? I think it might be me. Could it be that for some people, the pandemic created a less is more mentality when it comes to socializing? Maybe pre-pandemic you used to have three or four different social engagements in one night, meeting with a couple of friends for drinks and then meeting another group of friends going for drinks somewhere else, then going to dinner together.

Are you downsizing your social life a bit now? Has that caused you to dine earlier in the night than you used to? Some of our callers have even expressed that they don't feel as safe in the city as they once did. Do you have concerns for your personal safety and that's why you're socializing earlier, or you don't want to travel back home really late at night, or you're just generally tired and not wanting to stay up as late as you used to? Listeners, we are taking your calls.

Give us a call at 212-433 WNYC. That's 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. Tell us if you've been making much earlier dinner plans than you used to pre-pandemic, or if you work at a restaurant or bar, tell us what you've noticed in this shift and how it's affecting your workplace.

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Brigid Bergen: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Brigid Bergen from the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom. I also host a Sunday politics show at noon called The People's Guide to Power. I'm filling in for Brian who is off today, and we're taking your calls on whether your socializing schedule has changed. Have you turned into an early bird? Is the 5:00 PM dinner reservation now which you are lining up for? Give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. That's 2120-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. We want to hear about how your social life has changed. We want to hear if you work in restaurants, if you work in bars, how has the atmosphere changed? How has your work schedule changed?

We are going to kick things off with Alexander in West Harlem. Alexander, welcome to WNYC. What explains the shift in your social life?

Alexander: We have a 16-month-old daughter, and we revolve around her schedule now, [laughter] so sleep is a priority. Usually by 6:30, seven o'clock it's her bathtime, we wind her down, eight o'clock bedtime, and then usually by ten o'clock, I try to catch up on emails and stuff, but it's tough to keep my eyes closed. My wife is great because she allows me at least once a week to go out and try to socialize, but even so, by 9:30, ten o'clock I'm done. [chuckles]

Brigid Bergen: Oh, wow. I could tell, Alexander, because you said you were struggling to keep your eyes closed, and I'm pretty sure you meant struggling to keep your eyes open.

Alexander: Yes.

[laughter]

Brigid Bergen: I'm wondering, that you have a social life with a 16-month-old is my credit to you, but have you been able to make it out, and if you have, where have you guys gone?

Alexander: Well, we'll do brunch.

Brigid Bergen: Ah, that's the trick.

Alexander: We'll catch up with family and friends, but if we do dinner, we let most friends know or mostly family, it's like, it's got to be early. It's got to be by 5:30, six o'clock, and most people are flexible, or we'll invite them over and have some light bites here, but yes, we're not doing anything late because [laughter] the baby's schedule is priority.

Brigid Bergen: I completely can understand that. Alexander, thank you so much for calling. We are talking to listeners about how your social life has changed. Are you becoming an early bird? The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 2120-433-9692. Of course, we know some of those 24-hour establishments aren't open 24 hours anymore, so have you shifted your schedule because there's just no place to go? Let's go to Anthony in Brooklyn. Anthony, welcome to WNYC.

Anthony: Thank you. Thanks for taking my call.

Brigid Bergen: I understand that you work in the wine business.

Anthony: I do. I work for a wine importer and distributor, and a big part of our job is going to restaurants and supporting our restaurant account and clients, and that often results in very late-night wine dinners with clients and winemakers. I think it's important to note that during the pandemic, when restaurants reopened, they were closing a lot earlier. Our restaurant reservation times moved up to 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and it's something that I love and have continued to do even as restaurants stay open later because it allows for us to have a post-dinner relaxation time in the sense that it doesn't take away from the entire night, and we can come home, catch up on work, see my husband, that kind of stuff.

Brigid Bergen: Oh, I love that. Part of the reason why you like this early night out is because it gives you more time to be at home and be awake, and enjoy your time at home?

Anthony: Exactly.

Brigid Bergen: Anthony, thank you so much for calling. I like your description of that decompression time. Let's go to David in Staten Island. David, thanks so much for calling WNYC.

David: Hi, how are you? I want to encourage people to go back to eating at seven o'clock. [laughs]

Brigid Bergen: Wow.

David: I know. We've been eating at five o'clock for a while now. I have a seven-year-old who has pretty profound autism, so you want to keep them social and getting used to these things, so a fairly empty restaurant's a nice thing, and yes, they're not so empty anymore, which gives him more opportunity to grab people's food [laughs] or that kind of antics that he gets up to.

Brigid Bergen: That's so interesting. Part of the reason that you want people to go back to eating at 7:00 is so that there are some more of those reservation slots available for you?

David: Yes, it's purely selfish on my part, right?

[laughter]

David: I guess I could say, "Hey, we were trendsetters, we've been doing it for a long time," but it's just funny to see how that works out, I guess.

Brigid Bergen: Oh, that's so -- For you, since you have potentially been a little ahead of the curve in the early socializing, is it just when it comes to restaurants or do you try to look for other things that you can do, early activities that you can go to that maybe are a little bit less crowded now because everybody's gone to dinner and has taken up all your reservations?

David: I haven't really thought of going to other places during that time, but that's not a bad idea. We always look to try to find dates whether it's going to the zoo or other things where it'll be a little less crowded, which is challenging. You want to go on a school holiday, but it's just too crowded for him, those types of things. It's always a bit of a guessing game. Quite frankly, lockdown was great for us [chuckles] because we would drive places and there was no traffic and we'd go to every park and swamp and everything we'd ever heard of in New Jersey or wherever, and no one was there. Everyone's back now, which is great, but it does mean some different scheduling.

Brigid Bergen: David, thank you so much for calling and sharing your story. We are talking about how our social lives have changed and our schedules, in particular, have moved a little bit earlier, and I want to go to the Brian Lehrer Show producer, Amina Srna, who had this really interesting idea for this conversation and where that idea came from. Amina, take it away, where-- [chuckles]

Amina Srna: [chuckles] Hi, Brigid. A little peak behind the curtain, which is just that my friends have been making 5:30 PM dinner reservations, which I thought was initially brood. Who's done working at 5:30? [chuckles] What are you guys doing? I realized through attending these 5:30 PM dinners that really just people when they're coming into the office to work or going in for their jobs, they don't really want to drive back home and then come back into the city for dinner. They've been front-loading social plans piggybacking of the end of their work day. I definitely go, I'll have like a snack. I won't have a full dinner at 5:30, but it's been a cultural change that I'm trying to get used to here.

Brigid Bergen: [chuckles] Well, it sounds like some of our listeners have adapted better than others. I can speak personally as someone who has both the toddler and the long commute that my socializing has definitely shifted earlier. I think I'm doing a birthday dinner for my husband this week and we are eyeing a 5:30 reservation. I'm sorry to those those other folks who want it, we're going to get it. Thank you so much for [crosstalk]--

Amina: Yes, they're hard to get now. [chuckles]

Brigid Bergen: They are. I want to thank all of our listeners who joined us in this conversation. We're going to leave it there for today. Thank you for all your calls. The Brian Lehrer Show's producers are Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, and Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum, with help from Emily Lowinger. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen takes care of the podcast. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. Our interns are Trinity Lopez and Brianna Brady. Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz are at the audio controls. I'm Brigid Bergen, and this is the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Again, from all of us here, we want to wish a very happy new year to our Jewish listeners. Brian will be back tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening.

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