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Seated with strangers

Urban trend toward communal tables makes its way to Durango

They do it in Chicago. They do it in Los Angeles. They do it in Denver. And now, believe it or not, restaurants are doing it here.

You never know who you’ll sit next to at dinner anymore. Honestly. More and more restaurants are offering that big-city trend – communal tables – in our little burg.

Who does it? From high-end restaurants like Seasons Rotisserie & Grill to down-home cafes like Raider Ridge Cafe to breweries like Carver’s, lots of restaurants are taking a chance on seating complete strangers next to each other.

So, you might wonder, who wants to spend their dinner or lunch next to someone they don’t know?

First, the desperate. If you really, really want to dine at a particular place and it only takes reservations for parties of six and you’re just two and it’s full, a communal table can be your only shot at the meal of your dreams.

Second, the single. You’re alone in a small cafe and it has a bar along the window or a large table in the center for folks just like you. Here’s where you’ll often find business travelers, students and conversation-seekers.

Lastly, the curious. Remember the Japanese chain Benihana, where chefs amazed us with their flying knives and airborne food? That fascination with culinary theatrics led to the rise of sushi bars and chef’s counters. It’s a chance to see how a top-notch restaurant operates, from slicing the tuna to pan-searing the foie gras. If you have to share the counter with a tire salesman from Albuquerque, so be it.

“It’s entertaining,” said Christy Shaerer, program director of the Women’s Resource Center, who occasionally will reserve the chef’s counter at Seasons with her husband. “We enjoy watching the chef prepare our meal. It’s relaxing.”

For artists Reilly and Kelly Dickens-Hoffman, newly moved to the area from Kansas City, sitting at the sushi bar at Sushitarian is both a way to watch culinary virtuosity and maybe meet someone new.

“There’s a social component and an exploratory component,” Reilly said. “The food is so beautifully arranged, and you’re fitting people together artistically, too.”

Some of us however, might not enjoy being part of a dining tableau. Communal dining is necessarily lacking in privacy, a rare joy in a hectic life. What if your table mate is a jerk, or coughs on your food or has ill-behaved children? What if, you’d just like to appreciate your solo meal in silence?

So restaurants that adopt the collective eating experiment risk losing customers. But for small, casual places, the benefits often outweigh the risks because it allows them to seat more people. It may seem calculating, but there’s no crime in trying to make money when you’re in private business.

Jarrod Regan, owner of Raider Ridge, says he converted several small tables into one eight-top because he liked the social aspect of strangers having a friendly atmosphere to eat in. But he soon found that by grouping singles and deuces at one large table, his 25-seat restaurant was able to operate more efficiently.

The owners of College Drive Cafe and Grassburger concur, saying the economics of joint seating help their bottom line. But they note, too, that people like it.

“I’ve never had anyone say they didn’t want to share a table,” said Jessie Kileen, co-owner of Grassburger, which has one eight-seat table by design and another that’s merely two four-tops pushed together. “People could pull apart the two tables, but they never do.”

Regan said some diners will separate the tables to be by themselves, but that’s rare.

For some restaurateurs, seating strangers together is a matter of necessity that sort of happens by itself. At College Drive Cafe, the large booths often are not full, while parties of one and two line up out the door. Customers will hail unexpected friends to join them or the wait staff will ask a small group at a large table if they mind sharing the space with another diner or two. No one has to, of course, but often it ends in a good meal and lively conversation.

The same thing happens at Carver Brewing Co. on the outdoor deck, where amoeba-shaped tables can easily seat six to eight. When the restaurant is hopping, hospitality manager India Downing will ask several small parties if they mind sharing a table.

“If you can sit at a bar, why not sit here?” she said. “Why waste the space?”

Even some national chains are getting in on the action, such as the mega-coffeehouse Starbucks. At the local establishment, a very long high-top table is positioned across from the service counter. It serves not so much as a communal table as a communal office, where people set up their laptops, sip their lattes and check their email with others doing the same thing.

But breakfast and lunch are a different thing altogether than dinner – fast, casual meals to fuel you through finally, to a relaxed repast. And in general, locally at least, fast, casual restaurants are more inclined to have communal seating than more expensive restaurants.

Yet, there are exceptions. Seasons offers a four-seat chef’s counter where you can watch executive chef Dave Stewart direct his sous chefs like an air traffic controller directing incoming jets. It takes not just culinary brilliance but nerves of steel to oversee the sauteing of trout, frying of potatoes and flambéing of creme brulee all at once.

Up Main Avenue, Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen offers a nine-seat chef’s bar where diners can watch chef-owner Michael Lutfy and his assistants pirouette before two gaping ovens burning at over 700 F. Business travelers, tourists and couples who don’t want to wait for a table at the popular restaurant find their way to the very back, where Lutfy treats them not only to a show, but to samples of the evening’s fare.

“It’s a way for them to have company,” he said of the many single diners who frequent the chef’s counter. “You’ll see them talking about ‘What did you have?’ or ‘How is that dish?’ I’ll throw up a little taste for them.”

Dining with strangers might not be your cup of tea most of the time, but it can fill the bill when you’re on your own or want to watch what actually goes into your food, whether that’s sushi or homemade sausage.

Hike up your boots, put on your game face and give it a try. Who knows? Like adventuresome diners in big cities, you just might like it.

phasterok@durangoherald.com



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