Cohousing-L Mailing List: food service

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

On : Tue, 17 May 1994 
pfleiderer_j [at] WIZARD.COLORADO.EDU (Jean Pfleiderer) wrote:
 We do, however, very frequently have some part of the 
meal available at the counter outside the kitchen rather than on the tables. 
 This can mean anything from someone at each table comes to get the bowls 
for that table or picks up the dessert, to an occasional buffet style meal.  
For the latter, when you really have to pick up a plate and carry it through 
a line, we do set up a table so that people can go round both sides.  We 
agreed as a community when we designed the kitchen not to incorporate a 
warming table/cafeteria style serving area.  We didn't want to eat up the 
space that way, didn't like the institutional feel of it, and wanted to 
encourage "seatings", not constant coming and going.  With a community as 
big as ours, all of those things are really major concerns.  
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thanks, everyone, for all your ideas about this.  (And  welcome, Jean, - I
guess  you got my note).  I'm wondering about how much difference there is, for
the diners, between the two approaches.  Does "family style" mean less coming
and going because you expect people all to be there at the beginning?  or is it
mostly that fewer people are going to the serving area?  
        I've experienced both styles, at camps, weekends, etc.  At Monterey
CoHousing, we are currently only 8 households in residents, and usually serve
from 9-13, but often several of those come late or much later, so the fact that
we use a serving table doesn't seem very significant.
        One of our concerns is space, since the current plan is to modify the
existing kitchen into kitchen and additional dining space. At our last
discussion, people seemed to be leaning towards family style, with the option
of cafeteria style for pot lucks and part of the time.

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu