No piece of restaurant furniture is more controversial than the communal table. You either think it’s a fun way to meet new ...

Sharing has become impossibly embedded in restaurant dining rooms, particularly with the proliferation of so-called “share plates.” But what about the ultimate attempt at forced sharing—the communal ...

While it?s true that diners are unlikely ever to get tired of eating out, restaurants these days are working harder to keep patrons coming back by adding more fun and flair to the feast. In Wine ...

Jaya Saxena is a former correspondent at Eater, and the series editor of Best American Food and Travel Writing. She explores wide ranging topics like labor, identity, and food culture. At a recent ...

Communal dining tables are having a moment. Here's how to navigate the social dynamics without awkwardness. Last night, my husband and I decided to go out to dinner and specifically try a ...

This week's reader question comes from A.N., who confesses to feeling a little misanthropic when confronted with tablemates she didn't ask for: How do you negotiate the communal table? Start a ...

Mary Altman and John Pinson, though each traveling alone on business, savored some conversation with their barbecue last week as they sat together at one of 4 Rivers Smokehouse’s large picnic tables ...

Can we chat? You go first. Nearly every week, I cajole, plead, prod and poke readers for feedback. Often I hear nada, but one recent column got people really stirred up. When it comes to sharing space ...

Among our world’s scorned peoples, there is one group that is arguably the target of more condemnation than any other, a group with a remarkable capacity for arousing suspicion and fear within all of ...

Robert Stanley, foreground left, and Tim Behling have lunch at a communal table at 4 Rivers Smokehouse in Winter Park, Fla. Behling said he and his wife sometimes talk with communal seatmates when ...

Minnesotans appear to be thawing out. In restaurants, anyway, where diners are slowly but surely embracing the communal dining table. Dropping their chilly, arm’s-length practices, complete strangers ...

Last night, my husband and I decided to go out to dinner and specifically try a communal-table restaurant. (I’m required to eat good food for research purposes—my life is so hard!) Communal tables are ...