This gustatory equivalent of finding a Nintendo Wii began almost from Talula's opening in March. Aimee Olexy, Sikora's wife and business partner, said waits had quickly stretched to two months. But a bell-ringer of a review from The Inquirer's Craig LaBan in mid-October ("one of the best meals I've eaten all year") filled Talula's into next summer, she said.
Olexy decided to cut off reservations at July 31, 2008.
This Wednesday, the couple's first day back after New Year's, Olexy will accept reservations from Aug. 1, 2008, through Jan. 2, 2009. Thereafter, a rolling system, one year out, will begin. Chatter on food-related Web sites suggests that interest in reservations is high.
"It's harder than getting a table in the O.R. at Hahnemann if you're waiting for a liver transplant," said Franz Lidz, a writer who lives in nearby Landenberg.
"And the liver here is fantastic," he added.
Thursday night, as Lidz became Talula's first four-time guest, he mused that he might begin reselling reservations on eBay to pay for the college education of his daughter Daisy, a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence.
Some Talula's hangers-on - Lidz dubs himself a "barnacle" - wander into the kitchen while Sikora is cooking and end up eating - out of sight of the reserved parties - at a prep table.
Olexy said the couple was thinking of opening that kitchen experience to the public, as well.
Nick Jenny, a scuba instructor from Unionville, said he liked the ability to dine in the "small, quaint" atmosphere and praised the "innovative, imaginative cuisine that not even Per Se and Michael Mina are doing." Jenny said he had enjoyed his first meal so much that he and friends had six reservations scattered in the first half of 2008.
