The Share Society and Bar Design

After decades of seclusion get ourselves behind walls, hedges and fences, in cubicles and walked restaurant booths, in suburbs and gated communities it seems like we woke up one morning and said: enough! More accurately our kids now known as Millennials had enough of that lifestyle that privatized everything.

A lot has been written about the share society open source and open data. Even more about sharing cars via Uber and beds via AirBnB,  Zipcar and bike-share (and I won't even include the more sultry share options via Tinder or whatever). It is only logical that we now finally get to the essentials, to bars and restaurants, to shared tables to be exact.

Secluded and partitioned tables of four occupied by couples who stare at each  other in silence and where there are no open seats unless an entire table is unoccupied have given way to the much more effective communal tables where everybody sits together around one long table like it has been the custom in Bavarian beer taverns and tents like forever? 

In Baltimore's Uber hip Parts and Labor restaurant long stainless steel tables somewhat like long kitchen sinks allow happy fellowship over organic brats or ice cream with lard. 

The also hip replacement of the burnt out Donna's shop in Mount Vernon, Doobie's also offers camaraderie on share tables and so does the successor of the Bay Cafe. Probably this trend didn't originate in Charm City but in California or maybe Austin. Certainly long tables grace the brand new brew pub of the South Park Brewery in the trendy South Park section of San Diego. 

Share table in South Park brew pub 

Parts and Labor restaurant Baltimore