Pub Tables Raise Dining to New Heights

With the rise of single parents, working couples and overbooked children, family dinners in a dining room can seem as antiquated as a Leave It To Beaver rerun. For better or worse, today’s families are more accustomed to eating on the fly or in the comfortable surroundings of a kitchen. Even entertaining has taken on a more casual tone, with great rooms blurring the boundaries between public and private spaces, and kitchens designed for conversation as well as cooking.

To meet the needs of today’s more casual dining, furniture companies are introducing a concept called pub tables, also known as bistro tables or counter-height dining tables. Like crossover vehicles that combine the best features of an SUV and a car, pub tables combine the sit-down formality of a dining table with the casual aura of a breakfast bar. Featuring tops that range from 36 to 42 inches high (as opposed to the usual 30), pub tables are designed to be used with either counter stools or bar stools, respectively, making them ideal alternatives to island dining in a family room, den or kitchen.

“More and more homes today have a great room and a large breakfast area, and everybody’s lifestyle is much more casual with cooking and entertaining all in one spot,” says Kelly Cain, Vice President and Product Manager for Stanley Furniture. Pub tables are ideal for this scenario, Cain notes, because “you can sit or stand and still be on the same conversation level.” It even allows the people who are seated to converse with the cook without having to look up.

Nearly every major manufacturer has introduced a pub table recently, making it one of the hottest new categories in home furnishings. The designs range from contemporary to traditional, with some models offering surprising flexibility. For instance, the Toluca Lake Winward Bistro Trestle Table from Stanley comes with a leaf, so you can expand it just like a conventional dining table. The Toscano table from Henredon offers a walnut top that sits on a rectangular metal pedestal; by rotating the base, you can adjust the height from 30 inches to 36 inches, so it can serve as either a conventional dining table or a pub table. Palecek’s Metro Bar Table is a skinnier take on the pub table, ideal for beside a pool table or in rooms where space might be at a premium. Casual influences are also evident in Stanley’s Shelter Island Tavern Bistro Table, with its banister-style base and painted finish. Statements’ Trio Collection Pub Table is a great choice for more cosmopolitan spaces. The table features tapered edges and legs finished in rift-cut oak treated with an espresso-colored finish; a ribbed-glass inlay accents the top.

It’s unlikely pub tables will replace conventional dining tables anytime soon. (It’s hard to imagine sharing Thanksgiving dinner around one.) And you wouldn’t want to put one in a formal dining room. But in the meantime, they offer a nice alternative. And anything that brings people together is a step in the right direction.