Mediamatic ETEN, a vegan restaurant in Amsterdam, is offering personal dining booths to give diners a unique experience of intimacy in dining while maintaining social distancing rules.
Waterfront vegan restaurant Mediamatic ETEN devised a new concept in which the diners will be served a complete plant-based four-course meal while they are comfortably seated in a private greenhouse pod called “Serres Séparées” made for two
This greenhouse chamber can accommodate a maximum of three people. While tables of three are charged at an extra €40 at the door, alone diner will be offered a €40 discount on the price paid.
The restaurant has taken some measures to serve people while maintaining social distancing rules by the use of protective gear, and meals binge served on long wooden planks, which can be slid through the greenhouse door and onto the table.
Introducing the concept on Instagram, the vegan eatery wrote: “Serres Sépparées is one of our new dining concepts.
“With the current situation, it’s difficult to open a restaurant with limited space. So why don’t we add to our location and create a safe and intimate home for partners to reconnect, with the outside world at their own leisure.”
Cleaning might be a hassle now as Willem Velthoven of Mediamatic told Reuters.
“We are now learning how to do the cleaning, how to do the service, how to get the empty plates out again in an elegant way, so you still feel taken care of nicely.”
The Dutch restaurant plans to re-open its doors introducing this new concept on 21 May after trialing the concept with friends, members of staff, and their households.
“It’s super-cosy, it’s really cosy, it’s nice and the food is delicious,” Janita Vermeulen, one of the friends and family members invited to a trial dinner told Reuters.
She added that the ambiance and the overall feel of the place were perfect even with the new installations.
Although bookings are full until the end of June, the restaurant announced that running the restaurant on this new concept was “fully dependent” on receiving permission from government officials and Mediamatic ETEN will refund all bookings if approvals are not in place.
Customers at Mediamatic ETEN can pick a date and a time slot, either from 6 pm to 8:30 pm or from 8:30 pm to 11 pm, for a table for two
According to the latest guidance, bars, restaurants, and cafés in the Netherlands will be allowed to open outdoor spaces to customers from 1 June. Hospitality outlets will be permitted to serve a maximum of 30 people at one time, while staff and diners must observe social distancing rules, which in the Netherlands means staying 1.5 meters apart. Sites with up to 100 covers can reopen on 1 July as long as social distancing is observed.
