The future of restaurant dining after the coronavirus is likely going to look very different than it did in the past. Picture waiters wearing masks, disposable menus — and maybe even plastic dividers between tables.
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But at one new pop-up restaurant in Sweden, social distancing is exceedingly easy — in fact, it’s the goal. Bord för en, or Table For One, in Ransäter, Sweden, is just one table, and one chair in the middle of a meadow.
Bord för en is the brainchild of couple Linda Karlsson and Rasmus Persson. Persson toldThe World that their unusual setup is an ode to solo dining.
“If you want to go out and eat at a restaurant by yourself, it’s kind of frowned upon, right? People look at you like you’re a loser of some sort — like you’re on a date and have been stood up,” Persson said.
“But for us, the sole act of eating is … an amazing experience,” he said.
The restaurant also takes solo dining one step further than that: There’s no waitstaff. Each meal is delivered to the table in a basket, via a rope-and-pulley system attached to the couple’s kitchen about 150 feet away.
Dining at Bord för en will only cost whatever the guest feels is appropriate. The couple has opted for a pay-what-you-wish system in order to accommodate people who may be struggling financially during the coronavirus outbreak.
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“We decided to pay tribute to the fact that a lot of people are facing huge obstacles right now in life. People have lost their jobs, a lot of people have lost their loved ones,” Persson said.
Persson hopes dining at Table For One is a peaceful, introspective experience for visitors. He says each course of the three-course meal is curated with a poem, chosen by friends of the couple.
“We’re really trying to have this be an experience where you travel within yourself,” Persson said.
“We want to do our best to make sure every guest we have this summer has a respite … a break from all the stress and drama in life that everyone is facing right now,” he continued.