This is such a great idea! I wish more restaurants would do this...

We've eaten at several places like this, with communal tables

in Italy, and had really wonderful experiences. We met charming and interesting people, and, enjoyed the food tremendously. The BEST is in
Florence, called Il Latini, and is a new adventure each time we go. The food is just served..... and boy, is there plenty of it!!!
Right, Deb?????(We ran into Deb/MI and her hubby, Jerry, in Florence a few years ago, and went there together)...You never know who you'll meet or what you'll eat.

 
there was a resturant in NYC, in little Italy, call Puglia's and they only had ....

cafateria style tables. it was funky, cheap and the food was great. it was so much fun sitting at the long tables with all kinds of people. they served a home made type wine in pitchers. boy, did that stuff have a punch! Pappa played the accordian and Mamma sang Italian songs. everyone talked together, and laughed together and sometimes we would dance in the isles. if you had to wait outside to get in, Mamma would bring you wine in a paper cup. I'll always remember the dinners there.

Charlie, do you know if it's still there? I think they remodeled at one point but it was around the time I moved.

 
Haven't passed by there in a long time, but I remember Mamma. For some reason

she thought I looked like some actor and would always say to me "I know you; your in that picture". Never knew who she meant.

Do you remember her famous line" When in doubt--check it out".

 
Charlie, in what part of Manhattan do you live? I used to live on the Upper West Side - 69th St.

 
I lived at 200 W. 70th at the intersection of B'way and Amsterdam.

and i miss the amazing Fairway Market ("like no other store"), and Zabar's, and the Beacon and Thalia Theatres, and walking to Lincoln Center to stand on line for cheap last minute tickets to the New York Philharmonic or the $5.00 standing room tickets for the MET, and Central Park (and across to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or up CPW to the American Museum of Natural History), and the smell of axle grease at the 72nd St. Subway stop, and the diner at B'Way & 69th (how many daily specials have I eaten there?), and the Ansonia, and cannoli, cappuccino, and old opera singers at La Fortuna, and Cold Sesame Noodles at Empire Szechwan...--sigh--...what a wonderful neighborhood that was.

 
Waaaa - you're making me homesick! I can't believe how close we lived to each other. We must have

been in the same places at the same time more than once - if only we had known!

 
Showing my age

Ehrlich's was a Pathmark when I lived there. The building I lived in was the Chalfonte, the Café Luxembourg is a storefront there on 70th now (it was a Greek nightclub with dancing girls and smashing plates when I lived there--don't ask me how I know that ; )

When did you live there? I was there in the early 80's. I used to run in the park and would frequently run down or back on 69th. Of course, constantly up and down Columbus Avenue and B'way for shopping, dinner, entertainment, whatever. Wait, isn't that over-the-top Babylonian Art Deco apartment building (The Pythagoran?) on 69th?

 
I love to do this in Europe. Interesting acquaintances can be had. And it's amazing just

how small the world becomes. I recall meeting meeting a Swiss forest ranger, In Switzerland, who worked for one year at the only tower I had ever climbed, in the middle of very obscure forest in mid Canada. He started the conversation with, of course, I would never know of this teeny town in the middle of such an enourmous country....

Also remember laughing so hard I couldn't finish my dinner, at another table.

I don't know of any restaurants around here that do this, and I think it's a swell idea.

 
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