 |
| Lovely dining room, right? Check out the rows of hard, straight chairs. |
One evening I dined at Levant for a special group dining experience. Levant's Mediterranean cuisine was amazing and the wine pairings were perfect. But what I still recall about our rather lengthy evening (four hours) is that I needed to stand several times because, well... my tush hurt! Levant had lovely, sleek chairs. Many new restaurants have "lovely sleek chairs." But what they don't realize, as they decorate their lovely sleek dining rooms, is that these chairs can be as hard as a rock when you sit on them. To be honest, there are cushy banquettes at Levant but those seats were taken by diners wiser than I.
Other nights, it was off to new restaurants with industrial chic looks... and more really hard chairs. But the most recent hard chair experience was a shorter dining experience. This really helped. I was so entranced with the creativity of the food that I hardly (pun intended) noticed the hard seating.
In a recent conversation with fellow diners it was mentioned that chain restaurants like Chipotle may actually install hard tall chairs that are super uncomfortable (along with chilly temps and loud acoustics) so diners move along quickly. I do recall sitting outdoors on the patio of a Tualatin Chipotle to avoid the noise and mess inside.
Note to restaurant owners: Portland, Oregon is full of delightful, minimalist-decor restaurants with hard straight chairs. While this looks great, how about seating some of your older family members in those chairs for, say... a couple of hours before purchasing the chairs. See what they say. Are they comfortable or are they doing the "hard chair squirm?"
Me? I'll be looking for banquette seating every chance I get.
Rating: 1/5
Photo Essay: New York's Most Comfortable Restaurant Chairs
This may be deliberate. I've heard reports of making the chairs just uncomfortable enough to shorten the dining experience and thus create higher turnover. Is it social engineering to pad the bottom line at the expense of our bottoms?
ReplyDeleteOhh... a double-pun sentence. Great one!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment above. At a Thai restaurant I frequent, they have banquettes that run the length of the walls so each table gets 2 seats on the banquette and 2 on the plexiglass-looking chairs. They're not comfortable at all and I've often wondered if they're meant for kids.
ReplyDeleteGreat post---of course, diners need to feel comfortable. You should start a website rating chairs instead of food:-)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea Irene. Maybe I can do it on this side. Ratings go from one to five chairs with 5 being the most comfortable?
Deletesome one please please do! i have fibromyalgia and have to shove where i dine by the comfortable ness of the chair... width and padding are important to me as i have to sit native american style :) for my low blood pressure issue... TMI but i'd love to see that blog...pics would be great too.. please inform me if you do and i will help you get the word out about it! Pfost.lisa@gmail.com
Deletehttp://travelwriter-liz.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-trendy-restaurant-chair-rant.html