An oval bone china dinner plate, neoclassic flatware, a hexagon platter, glass dipping dishes, tasting plates, a brilliantly colored table runner, a patterned stoneware serving bowl that doubles for dessert, blue-tinted wine glasses—all of these disparate pieces could appear on the table during one dinner service. This is the freewheeling style of table dressing that has evolved as owners, operators, and F&B directors explore ways to notch up creativity in the dining experience.
Tableware designs cater to food trends. At some restaurants, chefs prepare different versions of side dishes, which are served in flights of three small plates. Amuses require more small plates with tiny spoons and forks. And the craze for exotic sea salts in pink, blue, and orange colors calls for assorted mini-servers.
The tabletop story reflects national lifestyles and an appetite for change—in food, as in cars and clothes. Fashion now is a mix, says designer Karl Lagerfeld. And restaurant tabletop design closely follows this fashion picture.
These diversions are part of an effort to create a social environment that makes diners feel at home, a trend influencing the style, function, and flexibility shaping tableware in the major categories: china, flatware, glassware, and accessories.
The Shape of Style
Asian and fusion foods, which launched a thousand shapes, have been joined by a global mix led by Mexican, Brazilian, and other Latin varieties. With many multicultural influences appearing on menus, dishware can be eclectic and a simple background for a lot that’s going on, says Clark Wolf, restaurant authority and tableware designer.
Unusual and offbeat shapes enhance this sense of freedom in tabletop decor, with pieces formed for specific uses. While geometrics dominate, outlines are morphing into softer, gentler, organic curves, moving away from sharp-edged angular looks. Rectangles and squares may have rounded rims. Ovals and teardrop shapes follow scooped and contoured lines. Other designs take wavy, fluid forms.
Shape supplies interest to all-white dinnerware. Chefs are keeping the upscale casual look going with their passion for whiteware as the ideal canvas to showcase signature dishes. Bone china, in clean and simple or curvy lines, continues to be the market’s hot material.
Pattern is edging back, with the addition of a colorful band, an ornamental motif, or an asymmetrical stroke of color. And going to the casual lifestyle level, a series of bone china plates and chargers adapt an artisanal look, with an earthy palette.
Along with multicultural styles, multifunctional items are part of the mix. A plate that serves appetizers or an entrée also is an a la minute choice for dessert. Chefs pick up and adapt odd-shaped pieces for special presentation: an eye-shaped platter is perfect to show off a fish course.
In the ebb and flow of design preferences, glass dinnerware has receded from the center setting to dessert and small accent or dipping dishes, showing up in floral and spicy hues to provide colorful relief. And in the cross-current between professional and home design, influence from the commercial field is flowing to the retail market, where squares, rectangles, and other shapes are gaining strength. A company specializing in restaurant tableware has culled some of its best-selling collections and designs for a new retail line.
The Edge on Flatware
Demand for contemporary flatware is on the rise, with many producers offering sleek lines with an occasional sculpted accent.
Contemporary cool, however, often is linked with classic elegance in collections that have an archival source. Style references to vintage designs confer a stamp of approval that assures long-lasting satisfaction. Other explicitly modernist collections have a cosmopolitan flair that captures an architectural look, with precise linear forms. The smooth, clean-cut geometry complements and echoes the new dinnerware shapes.
With upgraded stainless steel options, restaurateurs opt for the 18/10 metal flatware, often in a polished, mirror finish, over silverplate. The brushed finish is showing up again in full dress and as an accent on handles. Ahead on the style curve are burnished, bronze, and copper finishes, as well as glimmerings of gold decoration reflecting the metallic flash in fashion accessories.
At the same time, silverplate remains the choice of many chefs. As silver flatware fell from favor when firms began outsourcing production, sacrificing silverplating standards, several producers stuck to the high-quality standard of 20 or 33 micron level of platin. They continue to provide silverplate products highly valued by culinary experts.
Glassware Reflections
Glassware shares the design features essential for an inviting of-the-moment tablescape: casual elegance with decorative overtones. This might mean the addition of an embossment on a stem or colorful tint on wine glasses.
New drinkware and barware in tones of blue, lime green, aqua, and orange add splashes of color to the all-white table setting. Glassware also fills multiple roles. Tumblers may serve everything from water and juice to beer and even (mon Dieu!) Champagne.
Linens Unbound
A notable aspect of the changing tablescape is the variety of tabletop treatments. Options range from basic white or neutral to vividly patterned tablecloths; intricately woven runners; handsome placemats; and large luxurious napkins on a bare surface. The versatile runner has stepped in with stylish answers to provide color for woodgrain and other tabletops. Most chefs and F&B directors prefer runners over placemats to create an elegant though casual mood. Look for an innovation from Europe: a dining table with a slot around the edge, which lets the runner through the opening to form tete-a-tete arrangements.
New colorways in fabrics are replacing muted tones with lively pastels of rose and grass green, for example. The neutrals emerging include platinum and misty gray tones, along with a Venetian yellow-gold.
Designs are freer, with swirling paisleys and windblown motifs that lend a fanciful ornamental air. Botani-cal patterns have an artful floating feeling. Notable is a trend to retro styles, reproducing delightful small prints from the ‘20s and ‘30s in bright colors.
For cafe diners or bar areas, where table coverings are dispensed with, restaurateurs often elect to add the flourish of large-size colorful linen napkins to the minimal setting.
Gearing for warm-weather markets, one company is expanding its collection of coated fabrics, featuring damask designs with a stain-resistant surface. Perfect for terrace or poolside dining areas, these designs come in sunny colors and patterns.
Into the style and materials mix, designers have added playful elements here and there, sometimes in the form of clever mini-utensils for spearing a fondue morsel or a cherry at the bottom of a glass; a tray of puzzle-shaped servers; a sleeping teapot that leans for better brewing. One fun addition is the real focus on recycled materials—paper, cloth or glass—as underliners or any place else, says Designer Wolf. Who needs a doily?
Meade McCabe is a Chicago-based writer.
