Running a restaurant has always been equal parts artistry and agony. The chef may plate up poetry, but out front the maître d’ is juggling ringing phones, frazzled diners, and the occasional guest who thinks a “booking” means breezing in whenever the mood strikes. Enter the cavalry: Sadie, the endlessly patient AI host, and Libro, the veteran of reservation systems across North America. They promise to save restaurant staff from sprouting grey hairs before dessert is served.
The voice that never cracks under pressure
Sadie isn’t your average receptionist. She doesn’t sigh when you change your booking three times or roll her eyes when you ask if the seafood platter is gluten-free. Instead, she’s available 24/7, chirpily answering calls, locking in reservations, and sending polite reminders, the consistency most restaurant managers would trade their espresso machine for.
By plugging Sadie directly into Libro’s well-oiled reservation platform, restaurants now have what amounts to a digital maître d’ who never calls in sick and never loses a Post-it note.
“Restaurant teams are constantly balancing in-person service with incoming calls and last-minute bookings,” said Mitch Bourassa, Partner at Sadie. “By integrating Sadie’s conversational AI with Libro’s reservation platform, we are giving operators a smarter, more streamlined way to manage guest communication and reservations without missing a beat.”
It’s a tidy way of saying: fewer missed calls, fewer missed bookings, and fewer staff breakdowns during the Friday night rush.
The Friday night test
Anyone who’s worked in hospitality knows the horror of a fully booked dining room when the phones won’t stop ringing. Guests wave frantically for menus while the phone screams in the background, and staff mutter unprintables. Somewhere in the chaos, bookings get lost.
Sadie doesn’t lose her cool. She fields the calls, answers the FAQs, and lets the team serve customers already seated. Add Libro’s toolkit, secure deposits, waitlists, and prepayments, and suddenly operators aren’t firefighting; they’re orchestrating.
Lorne Schwartz, President at Libro, put it this way:
“We’re excited to partner with Sadie and extend the value of Libro’s platform to help restaurants operate more efficiently. Together, we are supporting operators with technology that enhances guest engagement, improves service, and drives revenue.”
A dash of humour, a slice of sanity
This partnership really delivers sanity. Thanks to the trade’s never-ending demands, restaurateurs are notorious for missing family birthdays, Christmas lunches, and sleep. If Sadie and Libro can shave even a little chaos from the daily grind, it’s a small revolution.
And while some diners may bristle at the idea of talking to a robot, let’s be honest: Sadie probably has more patience than most of us when we’re three martinis in and insisting we definitely booked a table for six.
Beyond bookings: the guest experience
The union of Sadie and Libro isn’t about replacing hospitality but ensuring it actually happens. Instead of tethering staff to the phone, it frees them to welcome guests, pour wine, and actually smile without worrying about the dozen missed calls on voicemail.
From a diner’s perspective, you’ll still get the same seamless service whether you booked online last week or rang on a whim. No more “Sorry, could you spell your name again?” moments scribbled on the back of a docket pad.
For an industry that survives on margins thinner than a filo pastry sheet, this is hard not to see as a lifeline.
By Soo James
