spl170 Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 anyone know of area restaurants with community tables and what are your thoughts. Going out with a friend and curious to see what it is about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillvalley Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Comet Ping Pong Buck's Fishing and Camping Hook I think it depends on what you are looking for. At Hook we sat at the communal table (which is ridiculously tall btw) and met a great couple who were in town from Texas. It added to a fun meal and a business contact was made. Another time at Buck's it was clear the people next to us, who weren't really talking to each other, sat and listened to our conversation. I don't expect privacy at a communal table, but I also don't expect to be your entertainment during the meal. Guess it depends on the company and the restaurant. ps-Great first post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpschust Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Zaytinya does too. That said, I'm not a fan of their food and in general the crowd there bugs me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monavano Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Eammon's tables are kind of communal. They can fit 4-6 and when it's just the two of us we wind up with company and usually a nice conversation. Market lunch also comes to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe H Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Black's in Bethesda has a communal table. I travel a lot and will go out of my way to find a communal table. Much of the enjoyment of something like this can depend on who is actually at the table when you have dinner. Stephen Pyles in Dallas has a wonderful communal table but on my first visit it was lonely for lack of a better description. A later visit was wonderful: I really liked the exhuberant, personable people around me. Dallasites, who did everything in their power to make me feel welcome. At Cafe Pasqual in Santa Fe I also had a fantastic experience. So good that I seriously doubt that any return visit could even approach it. Still, the food was so good that, of course, I'll go back. I should note that there are restaurants in Europe where Americans are seated together in what amounts to a kind of trans Atlantic communal table. I had this experience at Il Latini in Florence (a restaurant that is vastly overrated by the American press who visit it and-those who are conscripted to write about it-seemingly have little experience with Italian restaurants) where my wife and I were seated next to the only Americans within a square km of the restaurant. Two really boring Chicagoans who spent volumes of verbiage describing seemingly numerous divorces on both sides that we thought were an intrusive waste of our time and vacation. The only distraction to their depiction of Chicago attorneys were the hams hanging from the ceiling above our heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Sonoma has what I believe to be a communal table, but I've only seen large groups coming in together seated there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
u-bet! Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Liberty Tavern in Clarendon. The communal table is in the bar area, so it can get pretty noisy when it's busy, but they offer the full menu. Also has a good view of the HDTV screens, if there is a particular sporting event you might be interested in keeping tabs on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divine One Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Joe H- When you ask for a seat at a communal table what sort of response do you get? I dine alone often and usually choose the bar because I always envision that the communal table is for large parties or that others will think that I am eavesdropping on their conversation. Also, in some places the community table is located in such a prominent open location that I would feel completely ridiculous alone at a giant table in the middle of a restaurant. Not that there is anything wrong with that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I wonder if spl170 has a different perception of what a "community table" is than we do. There are two models I'm aware of, Good 'N Plenty, and Pho 75. At Good 'N Plenty (Bird-in-Hand, PA), everyone sits around in a circle and shares family-style side orders. It's a community meal, as well as a community table. At Pho 75, the community tables are like townhouses: The seats are all side-by-side, but every party is having their own private meal. I'm pretty sure most of what has been discussed on this thread follows the Pho 75 model. Cheers, Rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spl170 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 I wonder if spl170 has a different perception of what a "community table" is than we do. There are two models I'm aware of, Good 'N Plenty, and Pho 75.At Good 'N Plenty (Bird-in-Hand, PA), everyone sits around in a circle and shares family-style side orders. It's a community meal, as well as a community table. At Pho 75, the community tables are like townhouses: The seats are all side-by-side, but every party is having their own private meal. I'm pretty sure most of what has been discussed on this thread follows the Pho 75 model. Cheers, Rocks. Like Pho 75, but in a restaurant scene, where the tables are part of the dinning atmosphere . You go into places that have community tables and I think that it is a hit or miss type of thing if you are a single dinner, of if your with a group of people hanging around the bar. Curious are most people turned off by a community table in a regular restaurant scene i.e. bar, tables for 2,4,6 ect. with a community table? Is it a good extension of bar dinning, but not necessarily at the bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synaesthesia Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Curious are most people turned off by a community table in a regular restaurant scene i.e. bar, tables for 2,4,6 ect. with a community table? Is it a good extension of bar dinning, but not necessarily at the bar? I think it depends on the class of restaurant. I can't imagine I would want it as much if I was paying a ton of money for a special occasion. In my experience, it isn't really a good extension of bar dining, since most people dining at the bar go prepared with the mindset of talking to other people, and it is more casual. I've been to places like this in London's Chinatown, and have never spoken to anyone outside of my party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I think it depends on the class of restaurant. I can't imagine I would want it as much if I was paying a ton of money for a special occasion. As two top spacing gets tighter and you can often be closer to the person next to you than across from you (Sonoma, Cashion's, Nooshi, everywhere in NYC), sometimes eating at a normal banquette can feel like a communal table. Last year at a dinner at mas farmhouse I'm pretty sure the people at the communal table (including myself) were spaced farther away from other couples than those at the regular two tops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLK Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Like Brian (above), I think we're talking communal tables, not community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe H Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Joe H-When you ask for a seat at a communal table what sort of response do you get? I dine alone often and usually choose the bar because I always envision that the communal table is for large parties or that others will think that I am eavesdropping on their conversation. Also, in some places the community table is located in such a prominent open location that I would feel completely ridiculous alone at a giant table in the middle of a restaurant. Not that there is anything wrong with that.... I probably have 75 or more dinners a year on the road for business. Usually, I'll also sit at the bar but if I walk into a restaurant and they have a community table I'll take a look at it. Frankly, it depends on who is already there. Similar to a bar I'll take or ask for the seat that I want, rather than the one I may be led to. I have rarely been the first one to sit down at a table like this. I'll also take a close look at the bar and who is next to whatever vacant seat I can find. I enjoy talking to other people, especially when travelling. Some times I'll have dinner and rarely talk to anyone-but this is not my choice. Over the 25+ years of my travel I've written about some of the experiences I've had on here and Chowhound. If it wasn't for the tolerance of those I sat next to I never would have had anything to write about! This was one of my better experiences from dining alone at the bar: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/165051 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TinDC Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Neyla has a communal table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 Le Mannequin Pis in Olney used to have a community/communal table. Have not been in years though, so not sure that is still the case. Personally, I am not really a fan of the communal table idea. That being said, had a GREAT time when Frank Ruta and Aggie Chin were doing dinners at BreadFurst for a couple of months. The number of folks in the biz that showed up to that was amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopsing Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 I believe Campono’s tables are all communal. I think Green Pig Bistro has a communal table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkS Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 Union market is mostly community tables though a few places have bars as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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