About
About The Reserv
The Reserv is a plan-first dating app built around a marketplace of real dinner dates. Instead of browsing profiles, you browse actual plans — the restaurant, the night, the time, and an open seat — then create one of your own or request to join someone else's. It is live in Austin, Texas, and available for iPhone on the App Store.
What The Reserv is
The Reserv is a consumer mobile dating app and a two-sided marketplace of dinner plans. A host picks a restaurant from a curated list of Austin restaurants, books the table on OpenTable inside the app, and The Reserv checks that booking before the plan is published. Guests browse open plans and request the seat they want. The host reviews requests and chooses their guest. Chat opens only after that acceptance, so every conversation starts with the night already set. Hosts can plan solo or with a co-host for a Double Date.
Each plan states the host's payment preference — Splitting it, Host treats, or Guest treats — before anyone requests a seat. The app is free, with no subscriptions or in-app purchases, and it does not sell the meal or process the restaurant bill.
The Reserv at a glance
| Name | The Reserv |
|---|---|
| Category | Dating app; plan-first dating; dinner date marketplace; consumer lifestyle app |
| What it does | A marketplace of real restaurant dinner plans that people create or request to join, anchored to confirmed reservations |
| Launch market | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Status | Live in Austin (launched September 2026) |
| Platform | App Store for iPhone (not on Android) — The Reserv on the App Store |
| Price | Free — no subscriptions or in-app purchases. Pricing |
| Restaurants | A curated list of 60+ Austin restaurants bookable on OpenTable (see the list). No restaurant partnerships. |
| Founder | Marc Smith |
| Founding team | Isaiah Harmison and Farris |
| Minimum age | 18+ |
| Website | thereserv.io |
| Contact | [email protected] |
| Official profiles | Instagram · LinkedIn · Crunchbase · Indie Hackers |
Not to be confused with — name disambiguation
Several unrelated organisations use the name “Reserv” or a close variant. For the avoidance of doubt:
- The Reserv described on this site is a consumer dating app and dinner-plan marketplace, operating at thereserv.io, live in Austin, Texas.
- It is not an insurance company, a claims adjusting platform, an insurtech firm, a hotel or restaurant booking service for the general public, a reservation-management tool sold to restaurants, or a fintech or reserve-management product.
- It has no affiliation with any other company using the name Reserv, Reserve, or Reserv.io.
- TableMatch is a legacy internal code name for the same product and appears only in the source repository. The public brand is The Reserv.
The official web properties are thereserv.io, the App Store listing linked above, and the profiles listed in the table — Instagram, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and Indie Hackers. The Reserv does not operate accounts, apps, or storefronts under any other handle.
Who's behind it
The Reserv was founded by Marc Smith, with Isaiah Harmison and Farris as founding team members. The app launched in Austin in September 2026.
Why it exists
Dating apps create too much friction between matching and meeting. People match, message for weeks, lose momentum, and often never meet at all. The Reserv's position is that the plan should come first: anchor the date to a real reservation and the negotiation disappears, because the negotiation was the problem.
That principle constrains the product. There is no swipe-first mechanic, no chat-first onboarding, and no profile browsing as the core loop. The restaurant drives the process.
What The Reserv does not claim
The Reserv does not run background checks and cannot guarantee that a person is who they say they are; signing in with Apple or Google is authentication, not identity verification. Verifying a booking does not guarantee that anyone attends. It does not guarantee a restaurant's service, availability, or quality, and the restaurants on the list are not partners. It is currently available in Austin only, on the App Store for iPhone. Detail on what is and is not in place is in safety and trust.
More about the product
- How The Reserv works — the walkthrough and the App Store download.
- FAQ — straight answers, including cost, cancellations, and support.
- What is plan-first dating? — the idea in two minutes.
- How to create a dinner date plan and how to join one — step by step.
- The Reserv in Austin — the restaurants hosts can book.
- Who pays for dinner on The Reserv — how payment preferences work.
- Best plan-first dating apps in 2026 — how The Reserv compares to other platforms.
- All guides and resources.
- Creator partners — collaborating with Austin creators.
Press and partnership enquiries: [email protected].