The Glass Co Blog
Small plates dining trend – an alternative solution for tabletops
Have you been introduced to the “small plates” trend? In essence, “small plates” is increasingly popular style of restaurant dining, where instead of a traditional course-by-course style of serving food, small sample-size portions of a variety of dishes are served at once (tapas-style,) and are to be tasted as the main (and often the only) course.
What makes “small plates” appealing for chefs is the ability to showcase the ultimate culinary creativity by fusing new and fresh combination of flavors into small, yet intense bite-size dishes. For visitors on the other hand, “small plates” style of dining allows sampling a greater variety of dishes (and sometimes variety of cuisines), without feeling overwhelmed with large portions of food.
While “small plates” trend is still on the rise, a new challenge for tabletop designers emerges. How can we tastefully bring the rather casual style of “small plates” dining to a more refined restaurant setting?
Dessert presentation small plates style. By Glass Studio
Inspiration for this post comes from Glass Studio. Our designers put their creativity to work and assembled interesting solution for food presentation that can be adapted to “small plates” restaurants. The lead actors in this setup were small glass bowls and glass spoons, used for serving amuse soups and appetizer-like dishes. Dishes were placed on small glass elevations, which added extra dimension to the tabletop, but also allowed to de-clutter the space from the large amount of piling small dishes.
Although not very typical for “small plates” venues, this idea is a great alternative for restaurants that want to encourage diners to share their experience of sampling small delicacies in a group of friends or family.
What are your thoughts on the “small plates” dining trend?