10 Important and Overlooked Tablecloth Questions for Hospitality

How much time do you spend thinking about your tablecloths? The answer might depend on who you are. The homeowner who only gets them out for Thanksgiving and Christmas probably gives them a lot less thought than the bed-and-breakfast manager who’s serving three-course dinners every night. Still, nearly every American home uses a tablecloth at least once a year, and many people have questions about the right way to use them. Here are the top 10 tablecloth questions asked online.Continue reading →

8 Essential Details for Running a Good Restaurant

A few years ago, there was an American Express ad where celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito unleashed a scary statistic for anyone interested in running a good restaurant: 90 percent of all eateries fail within their first year. The good news is that there’s no evidence that figure is true. The bad news is that the actual numbers aren’t much more encouraging. Only 20 percent of all restaurants make it past the five-year mark. There are some major factors that can make or break a restaurant – food quality, management, location – but there are also some smaller steps you can take to help ensure your success.

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How to Use a Table Runner

Did you know that table runners have been used in dining rooms as far back as the Middle Ages? It’s true.

Way back in the Medieval period, table runners were used to protect rare and valuable tablecloths from messy and uncouth diners, many of whom tended to use the tablecloth in front of them as a napkin.

Dining room manners, of course, have changed quite a lot over the past thousand or so years, and today, table runners are generally used for decorative purposes. And yet they also keep expensive tables—and yes, expensive tablecloths—safe from forks, knives, liquid spills and food debris. So maybe things haven’t changed all that much after all!

If you’d like to add a table runner to your own dining room, bear in mind that they can be used for both formal and informal settings. In either situation, they bring color, texture and an added interest to your table. You can use them to celebrate special occasions, to observe the holidays, or simply to change the mood of the room.

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