For his Web site, Melling and his wife, Wendi, often visit new restaurants, which introduces an element of uncertainty to waiting for a table. But he tries to minimize his wait by making reservations whenever possible. If a restaurant doesn't take reservations, he arrives "right at 5 p.m."

"It's kind of baffling to me when people are willing to wait so long," Stuart Melling said. "The Cheesecake Factory being such a new thing when it came here, I guess people really wanted to see what it was. But it's not like it's a world-famous chef or a new cuisine, so it's hard for me to understand."

Stuart Melling, who lives in Sugar House, will make one slight exception to his no-waiting rule: Kyoto, the beloved, locally owned Japanese restaurant in Salt Lake's Ninth and Ninth neighborhood.

"Quite often, we get a hankering for their food and haven't made a reservation, and we're kicking ourselves," he said. "We'll say, 'OK, we'll give it 20 or 30 minutes, and then we'll go somewhere else.' We usually get in."

But if he didn't?

"Any longer (than 20 minutes) and I could knock out a great meal in my own kitchen."

e-mail: skratz@desnews.com