Restaurants in Texas were permitted to re-open a month ago at 25% capacity plus use their outdoor space. They’ve since been permitted to grow to 50% capacity. We haven’t yet seen the projected spike in cases, though as the state continues to open I believe we’ll have some growth.

Menus are single use only. Condiments cannot be left on the table, but provided only on request. Flatware cannot be pre-placed on tables either and instead must be given to each guest after being seated.

Two months ago I said restaurant dining would change and it has. It’s not the same experience as before but it’s not dining in quarantine greenhouses, either.

Lucky is back to restaurant dining but I’m really enjoying contactless pickup. Instead of showing up by 8 a.m. and waiting outside in line for 3 hours for Franklin Barbecue, I simply order online and drive up during my designated window. And my favorite local sushi place has moved past just rolls and bolls for takeaway even adding omakase.

So for people not quite ready to go back to the way things were, there’s a restaurant that’s opened for only one guest a a time. In the middle of a field. Delivering food by rope to limit interaction.

Bord för en, or ‘table for one’, offers a fresh new Swedish take on socially-distanced al fresco dining.

At Rasmus Persson and Linda Karlsson’s restaurant, you don’t have to order takeout, or wear a mask, or try to stay two metres away from the other patrons — because there are no other patrons.

It’s just you, seated alone at a table in a picturesque meadow in the Swedish countryside as you’re served a homemade meal that arrives in a basket using a rope and pulley.

It’s called Bord För En, which translates to “table for one,” and it opened on May 10 in Ransäter, a rural town some 350 kilometres west of Stockholm.

Credit: Bord för en

When a guest arrives they’re “greeted with a sign and a rope.” The rope leads to a table in the middle of a meadow. The restaurant asks you for a list of your closest friends, and they solicit a note from someone you know. The note is at the table, so the meal begins with ‘social interaction’.

The coursed meal is delivered across the rope in a basket from the owner’s home about 230 feet away. Inside the basket is also a poem written by a local artist. They operate on a ‘pay what you can’ basis since they know a restaurant with only one seat won’t make money regardless.

(HT: Marginal Revolution)