My friend Ramblings & Gamblings sent me a link yesterday to this story by Deadspin.com: “Are New York’s Most Exclusive Restaurants More Eager To Seat Jeremy Lin Or Eli Manning?”

The site called eighteen of NYC’s most notoriously unbookable restaurants–Per Se, Babbo, and Minetta Tavern, to name a few–posing as assistants to sports stars Eli Manning and Jeremy Lin to see who could get a last-minute reservation where. The results are unsurprising but saddening to those of us who will never be celebrities. Deadspin writes:

Final tally: Manning had only two flat rejections, while Lin had four. Of the restaurants that offered to seat Manning at another time, only one, Per Se, bumped him from his 8 p.m. request by more than a half-hour. Lin got a better offer than Manning once: at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Linsanité!

The only redeeming news is that neither of them could get a reservation at Brooklyn Fare. Deadspin says, “Brooklyn Fare, in a tone suggesting we’re stupid for even asking: ‘We take reservations weeks in advance.’” God bless you, Brooklyn Fare, even if you answered in the same tone when I called and said I would only take a reservation on a Saturday night.