Furniture designers sure come up with some unusual – to put it mildy – ideas sometimes. Take for instance Diana Halbeisen’s “table top-less table,” which I saw over at gizmodo.com. Apparently, Halbeisen tried experimenting with deviating away from the norm by having metal rods and bent circles to hold tableware and flatware in place of conventionally solid table top surfaces. While the design is certainly eye-catching, the thought of inadvertently impaling one or more parts of my body on the protruding rods while eating on such a table in a fast food restaurant or accidentally having my food slip through the space between the rods admittedly make me nervous.

Thankfully, though, more conventional, well-designed restaurant furniture, such as contemporary bistro chairs and fast food chairs and tables are safer bets. Take, for instance the AT fixed seating furniture for fast food restaurants. There are at least five table-and-chair sets in this collection: the AT Delfi D800/2, the AT Delfi D800/4, the AT Webby 830/4, the AT Webwood 860/2 and the AT Webwood 860/4. All of them have 45-degree swivel seats, which use an automatic return system. The customer turns the chair to stand up and the chair swivels back to its original position; no more need to have an employee make sure that the chairs face in the right direction to make them ready for the next customer. The alfawood table tops are done in either wooden or copolymer finishes. Upholstery fabrics for the chairs can be taken from the standard range or according to the client’s own preference.

While nobody expects haute design and cuisine from a fast food restaurant, that doesn’t mean customers shouldn’t have to be able to enjoy their meals in a relative degree of comfort. Plus, it doesn’t hurt if the furniture and furnishings are pleasing to the eye. It’s a good thing that easy-to-maintain, functional, and comfortable diner tables and chairs are still the norm.