Noble

The new dinner table is an interesting concept.

It involves recalling memories and reinventing them.

In a reality where many meals are eaten on the run, people are seeking ways to reconnect to the times they remember when meals were more than just grabbing something to eat. They were family communions; a time to share not only food, but also other forms of nurturing. Think about some of your most vivid memories from childhood. I’ll bet a lot of them involve a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner when your extended family was sitting around the table—maybe you were at the “kids” table—and everything seemed right with the world.

Restaurants and foodservice providers are embracing this concept with a lot of success.

A great example is a three-store chain located in upstate New York (one location in Connecticut), Bellini’s Italian Eatery. This is not an ad for Bellini’s, but a nod to a company that is embracing the changing times.

Bellini’s is a family-friendly place for dining and also features a great take-home menu. One of its ad headlines is “Saving dinner tables, one family at a time.” They also boast a nice wine list. Something for everyone.

Tuesdays at Bellini’s is “Dinner Table Tuesday.” For 20 bucks you can get enough of a pasta main course, salad and a loaf of fresh-baked bread to satisfy a family of four. It’s promoted as a “to go” product, realizing the importance of the new dinner table. The home table experience. And you can call your order in on Monday to save time on the way home from work on Tuesday.

Sundays at Bellini’s is positioned as “Family Style Sunday”—three pasta courses and bread, to go. In-store, the Sunday meals are served family style, and Bellini’s says, “the dishes don’t stop coming until you’re full.”

To balance it all out is “Small Plate Monday.” It’s a Bellini family tradition; one that the restaurant started in 1959. There’s a wide variety of offerings, in smaller portions, so sampling is encouraged.

The menu claims, “Small plates, big taste.” Bellini’s probably doesn’t think of these ideas as innovations…but as traditions.

That’s what the new dinner table is all about: reinventing traditions.

The restaurant also embraces the new social networking concept. It has a great website, a Facebook page, and Twitters on a regular basis.

McAlister’s Deli is another place that has a Tuesday family night—kids eat free—and a chalkboard menu with more than a hundred items. And it pushes its quick-and-easy take-home service.

Macaroni Grill has a family-style approach that encourages people to trade and sample. Things are in big bowls, not single-serving sizes.

While the “take out” trend is growing and is having an impact on consumers’ selection of a restaurant, it’s also the least sustainable. Restaurants need to figure out how to make sure their food tastes good when it gets home.

It not only needs to taste good, but also to be comforting. Fried chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and other classic comfort foods are making a big comeback.

In this age of rush and run, “family time” is becoming more and more important even as the definition of “family” is expanding. The redefinition is: it’s whatever it is for you.

The new family may not be mom, dad and 2.5 kids…it’s simply going to be people who are comfortable together and share a common bond. There’s a growing need to connect with others, and doing so over a meal is still the best way to do it.

In the era of The New Dinner Table, the line between retail and foodservice is continually blurring. Retailers are offering more upscale foodservice, and the smart supermarkets are opening their own restaurants. Even convenience stores are upgrading their offerings and making plays for this market. You can get a decent breakfast at a lot of convenience stores these days, and upscale restaurants continue to put emphasis on takeout foods and catering.

There’s a new dinner table mentality that harkens back to old, comforting traditions, and “families,” however defined, look forward to the good times had over a good meal.