No. It is not a slogan to prevent the coronavirus, although the distance between diners also helps to this end. They are three key elements so that, along with the kitchen and the service, a restaurant can make you happy.
It is true that there are meals and meals. It is not the same to have a quick menu on a weekday, which has as its main objective to fulfill the daily vice of filling the belly, as to settle at a good table to calmly enjoy a dinner. When we refer to this second type of meals, one must be more meticulous, not to say, demanding.
How many times have you not had to eat enjoying an ear massage produced by the elbow of the diner at the next table? How many times would you have wished for an alpinist's headlamp to be able to distinguish the delicacies on the plate? How many times has it bothered you to eat like Anglo-Saxons, on the sliding wood of the table, without a miserable individual placemat to prevent it? How many times do you have the feeling that the diners at the surrounding tables passively participate in your conversation? That lady you catch in flight with your gaze affirming or denying with her head your emphatic statements. Or that table at the entrance of the restaurant where the impatient public, who does not know how to wait politely at the threshold of the door, literally throws themselves on you to the point that it seems they want to sit on your lap. In my previous life, working as a waiter, I once watched in astonishment as a customer got up offering his seat to the gentleman who, behind him, was waiting standing to be seated. "You eat and enjoy; when you finish, I will do it calmly!".
How many times do you have the feeling that the diners at the surrounding tables passively participate in your conversation?Details are important to be able to enjoy a good lunch or dinner. You provide the company, but the food, service, and the rest of the elements are provided by the establishment. Hence, in my opinion, the importance of the tablecloth.There is nothing more pleasant than sitting at a table with a good clean tableclothSomeone might say it's not practical or sustainable. But when it comes to good restaurants, it becomes an indispensable element, at least for me. It's true that there's an Anglo-Saxon tradition of eating directly on the table. The tablecloth is a strange, unusual element in restaurants in the United Kingdom and the United States. And it's not a symptom of austerity, but rather part of their normality. I, when it comes to paying, prefer to eat with a white tablecloth. It gives a feeling of cleanliness and order. And, even more importantly, you know where you can leave your cutlery. I don't like leaving them on the wood or marble of a table, what do you want me to tell you. Another battle is the mythical oilcloth, a practical thing, but closer to the time of Franco's rationing than anything else if we're talking about restaurants. I will always remember a restaurant near Aberystwyth, in Wales, very well referenced in the guides, where your elbows, forearms, and wrists would stick to the oilcloth. Although we had already ordered, we got up and fled in terror.
The Anglo-Saxon tradition also has another vice: the dim lighting of the establishments. Especially at dinner time. Both in London and in some establishments in San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, the room had so little light that you could barely see the faces of your dining companions and, sometimes, you couldn't even see what you had on your plate properly. This custom probably stems from English pubs, where people eat and drink indiscriminately, especially at night. Having the table well lit seems essential to me if the aim is to enjoy the dishes. Sight is also important. We are not attending a blind tasting! There's no need to have to feel around the table to find the cutlery. If intimacy is what you're looking for, there are other places and not an altar of gastronomy. A little respect.
And, finally, the distance. Oh, the separation between tables! The business must be profitable, obviously, and the more people that fit in the room, the better. More profitability. Elementary, as one would say. But everything in this life has a limit. And I reiterate that it's one thing to eat quickly on a weekday, when you're focused and don't care much about being surrounded by humanity, and another to go and enjoy good cuisine.
Having the table well lit seems essential to me if the aim is to enjoy the dishesIf an establishment has overcome all these obstacles, there are still details that are not minor. Like the blade of the knives.How many times have we had to face a pitched battle, titanic I would dare say, with a knife that doesn't cut?Sharpening your tools well is essential, even more so if you are going to eat meat. Facing an old cow or ox entrecôte and having the blade disagree with the piece can ruin the best party for you. And a final pet peeve: hasn't it happened to you to go to a restaurant in France, from a popular bistro to a Michelin-starred one, and find ridiculously small wine glasses? In the country of wine! It's not about drinking from giant glasses like those used by some resurrected chicks from theupperdiagonal, it's about being able to make the wine dance a little so that it oxygenates. But we'll talk about glasses another day, as the topic deserves a separate chapter.
All of these are quirks, but they surely contribute to the party that begins when you enter a good restaurant having continuity and, above all, allowing you to dedicate yourself exclusively to enjoying what fills the plate without worrying about anything else.
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