Word: buddakan
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...Thursday night, and at Buddakan, a restaurant in Manhattan's ultra-trendy Meatpacking District, friends Lisa Natt-Irom and Jeanne DiGangi and their husbands are sitting down to an intimate dinner with 18 complete strangers. "Hi, I'm Jeanne," says DiGangi, 42, as she slides into her seat at the 30-ft.-long table that is the centerpiece of the room. "Have you eaten here before? What's your favorite thing? You have to try the butternut-squash dumplings!" she says before taking a breath and introducing the rest of her party...
Restaurateur Stephen Starr, owner of Buddakan, says he has made communal tables part of many of his restaurants because "they provide a great core of energy." Buddakan evokes the roots of such dining with a space reminiscent of Versailles. "When people descend the stairs, it's as if they're watching a movie," says Starr. "People like to feel they're part of a group or party, and our tables achieve that." The shared table is so popular that even Drew Barrymore, whose celebrity status would surely merit more discreet VIP seating, has been spotted there...
...shared table allows you to order what you want, and there's no obligation to talk to the person next to you. Getting to know your neighbors, however, is often part of the fun. Those at such tables tend to be more sociable, like DiGangi and Natt-Irom. At Buddakan that night, the interaction between groups started with food ("Oh, what's that?" as a plate of shaken chili beef tartare arrived) but quickly progressed to a discussion about the latest handbags from Chloé, a debate about police brutality and an exchange of phone numbers...
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