Dinner tonight at a local restaurant around the corner prompted me to discuss paper napkins. I’ve thought about this issue a number of times while dining in Romania, because the American norm is typically quite different.

When you pop into your local Whataburger or Carl’s Jr in the States, you expect a fistful of paper napkins to go with your fast food meal. (Except we all know McDonald’s is notoriously tight-fisted about paper napkins, ketchup packets, etc. Not that it’s worth eating there anyway.) And if you get short changed on paper napkins, most folks feel a little miffed but you know you can always demand more.

Well, in Romania, you can nab some quick italian grub at Happy Food or a huge kebap from Simpatico, but the one or two paper napkins you get with the meal are very likely to be the only ones you can get. Asking for more may get you nowhere as the employees are well-known far and wide for not caring about the customer. At all.

Now, instead, let’s imagine you’re back in the western hemisphere enjoying a dining experience at one of the higher-end cookie cutters like Ruth’s Chris or a Brinker‘s joint. You pretty much expect to graduate above paper napkins and utilize a nice cloth napkin. It’s simply part of the carefully orchestrated eating environment which makes you feel justified in spending $12 on a scoop of pasta or $25 on a slab of cow prepared by someone who may or may not have taken a culinary class at the community college.

Certainly, you expect a serious cloth napkin when eating at a real fine dining establishment.

Not in Romania. Bless them for trying to adopt modern/western high-end eatery styles, but even high-end places like Bella Musica and Intermezzo all seem to fail in the napkin department. That’s right, you will be served that multi-course meal and dessert right along with your paper napkin. Really, a paper napkin. Roughly the size of a square of toilet paper with two semi-transparent plys. It’s hard to determine which is more uncouth: leaving your paper napkin next to the plate or trying to put it across your lap. The primary difference at this point is that the staff at expensive restaurants will happily bring you another translucent sheet at your request. You may even find a small supply already on the table, for your convenience.

But it’s still a paper napkin. And talk of cloth napkins gets you a blank stare in return. It’s just not something most folks are aware of here, at this time. I suppose one might possibly find such a luxury at the one or two posh places in Bucureşti which cater to politicians and celebrities, but I’ve not found it yet. It’s also possible that this situation will change in the next two or three years as the competitive landscape continues to rapidly adapt.

In the meantime, prepare yourself for paper napkins everywhere.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Food, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.