DINNER OUT, REDESIGNED

When restaurants reopen, they may look a little different. Designers around the world have dreamt up ways to maintain social distancing in dining areas – some practical and some less so!

Bumper tables

One bar in Maryland, USA, is already using these fun social distancing tables. Designers Revolution Event Design & Production also offer Plexiglass table dividers and cushions designed to go on chairs to be left empty that read “Due to social distancing concerns, please do not sit here.”

Single-person restaurants

Swedish pop-up Bord for En is currently serving diners one at a time at a table in a field. Service is via a basket-andpulley system. Chef Rasmus Persson said he had the idea when his partner’s parents came to visit and he prepared a table for them outside and served a meal through a window.

Personal greenhouses

In Amsterdam, an art centre is pioneering three-person glass houses for its vegan restaurant. Called Serres Séparées, the glasshouses look out over the Amstel river, and are served by waiters with long wooden boards, so that it’s not necessary for them to enter the pods.

Dining pods

French designer Christophe Gaignon’s Plexiglass hoods offer protection from the diners at your own table – so you can dine with friends outside of your quarantine crew, for a change. Date night? Book a table with the double hood to be under the same one as your partner.