In this throwaway culture, something is new for about two weeks, after which it becomes disposable. Time to throw it out – OK, recycle. Consider, however, the fine line and the difference between recycling and hoarding. We are preached to about reusing, but those who want to retain the past are looked upon as relics and to be avoided.
Consider how this contradicts an essential part of dining out. When we sit down at a restaurant table, we are recapturing a small part of our past. We long for a moment that takes us back in a small way. It might be a taste memory. It may be nostalgia for the table or chair we were seated at to savor that memory once upon a time.
A recent article in Food & Wine discussed a subculture among some restaurateurs who have been buying up furnishings and utensils from closed eateries. Some of the artifacts such as a banquette from one person’s favorite place had powerful personal memories.
Award-winning Restaurant CAV in Providence was founded on the idea that people would like to do more than only keep the memory of the table, chair or decoration from a visit. The late Sylvia Moubayed, the former, beloved CAV owner, was ahead of her time and offered them for sale. Some of CAV’s legacy guests still recall those days.
An antique dealer who specializes in culinary artifacts mentioned in the Food & Wine article that like much of even the most leading-edge cuisine, the look of bars and restaurants was and is heavily influenced by French culture. It can be traced to a culinary enlightenment in 17th-century Europe that predated the French Revolution. This influenced customs from silver tea and coffee pots to tablecloths and furnishings.
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THE CHILD’S TABLE: This is one of several tables where famed cooking personality Julia Child dined when she visited Pot au Feu in Providence. Patrons still request to be seated there, almost two decades after she died in 2004.
COURTESY POT AU FEU[/caption]
It is not necessary to travel to Europe, New Orleans or even Florida to find examples of reclaimed items brimming with memories. CAV’s bar goes back almost 200 years to a New York tavern. And local restaurants have examples of lineage and history that are not confined to the furniture. While across the country the memories have to be reclaimed sometimes literally from the dumpster, we just have to walk into a downtown Providence restaurant and be shown to just about any table. In this case, that restaurant is Pot au Feu and our host is none other than owner Bob Burke.
The city’s unofficial ambassador of goodwill, and these days its keeper of history, said, “Many people ask to sit ‘where Julia Child sat.’ She dined many times at Pot au Feu. As was her way, she was not fussy about having the best seat in the restaurant. She sat at many of our tables, and she never kept track. Neither did we.”
Burke continued, “For the past 50 years, the most requested table at Pot au Feu is ‘the table near the fireplace.’ ”
The strange thing is that there is no fireplace in Pot au Feu. His best guess is that Pot au Feu was one of the first restaurants in America to have an “open kitchen.” So, flames from the usual alchemy of cooking could be observed. In the dining room, the only flames other than candles come when the chef does a “flambée,” which can make it appear there is a fireplace flickering in the room.
Burke says a top request is for people who want to sit “upstairs, in the window,” in the space that used to have formal prix fixe dining. Burke and his staff still call it the Salon, but it has been used only for private parties for more than two decades.
In these uncertain times, there is comfort to be taken in the legacy of service inherent in hospitality. Even in the most modern eatery, there are echoes of the past, of tradition. It might be as close as the fork you pick up. It was never needed more than now.
“Dining Out With Bruce Newbury” is broadcast locally on WADK 101.1 FM and 1540 AM and on radio throughout New England. Contact Bruce at bruce@brucenewbury.com.
