My Communal Lunch

Earlier today I found myself in one of those situations where you look around and actually enjoy the present moment. You know, really soak it in. I had spent the morning in the library studying, and decided to get lunch before heading to the gym. I don’t like eating alone. I don’t like watching others eat alone either, it just makes me really sad. I justified my eating alone with the fact that I had tons of papers I could read to further study for my midterm this Wednesday. If I have reading, then sitting alone doesn’t feel so lonely. I went to Le Pain on 84th and Madison. They are across the street from my gym, support sustainable farming, and their food is awesome. I had my small painful moment where I confirmed with the man seating me “yes, just me, just one”, and he placed me at the large community table. For those who haven’t been to a Le Pain Quotidien, they are French in style and food and while there are many small tables for individual parties, there is also the giant communal table where people from different groups all sit together. Since it was a packed Saturday, I definitely wasn’t going to get my own table, but I was OK with that. They squeezed my one chair into a place at the big table. Even though I was there alone, I was surrounded by at least 15 other people. We shared the jams and jellies for our bread, and menus that were in the center of the large wooden table.
To my right was an older couple, seemingly grumpy. When the woman sat next to me, she tapped my shoulder and said “could you move over at least a little?” (I hadn’t even seen her yet, of course I would move! Gese!) Across the table and staring back at me, a French woman with a thick accent and her (I would guess) 11 year old daughter, who clearly spoke all the English in the family. To my left, a sweet older couple, the woman in a gorgeous Burberry wrap, the husband in a baseball cap. And across from the sweet couple, (next to the French woman) were the sweet couples friends, two men, who were partners. I sat there with my orange juice, whole wheat bread, and apricot jam; reading my notes on how the industrial revolution changed public health and brought about two cholera epidemics in NYC. Every few seconds I would look up at the people to my left and observe how much fun they were having with one another. Finally, the sweet woman next to me says “what are you studying?” I replied “history of public health principles….for my midterm…(smile).” “Oh that’s wonderful, where do you go?” “NYU”. Then she smiles at me and says “you are a very sweet, and pretty girl, I wish my son was here!” The couple across from us starts laughing and I laughed too. We went about our meals for a few seconds, but they were talking about museums in the city, and I really wanted people to talk to. I looked up and made eye contact with one of the men across the table, and he included me in the conversation. Jackpot. I am making friends at this lunch and I am not eating alone. “What do you think about the Guggenheim?” he asks me. “Well, actually I’ve never been! I just walk past it all the time! I always return to the museum of natural history and the Met”. “Oh, we just came from the Met!” both men said at the same time, and now we are all smiling and talking about how awesome the Met is. The French woman keeps shooting us over some looks; I think she was taken back at how I jumped into these peoples lunch. It wasn’t until one of the men kept pronouncing tabouli wrong that she jumped in and with her perfect French accent and said “ It’s tabouli!”
“Oh! You’re French! Here, how do you say this?” (I was cracking up, they were asking her how to pronounce the name of the restaurant, which, after 8 years of eating here I can’t pronounce either). Now the French woman was in on our lunch, and explaining to us not only the name of the restaurant but how it means “breaking bread” sorta. A way of saying daily bread, or to break bread together, which makes sense considering the restaurant has the communal table. “Eh, eh, how do you say?” and her daughter looks up from her plate and says in a perfect Manhattan accent: “pastry”. “Eh yes! Pastry!”
She continues now to talk about how this restaurant reminds her of home, except in France they spend more time having wine and cheese at the communal table then they do tabouli and lentil salads. “They don’t have wine here” she says, and then out of nowhere, grumpy woman to my right chimes in with the menu in her hand “Oh no, they do! They do have wine here!” I look at her and smile, and agree that wine and cheese is my absolute favorite. “Oh yea, definitely!” The two men say, again, at the same time. Now we are all eating together. “So are you from New York?” The sweet mom asks me. We small talked for a bit, I explained where I was from and what I was doing, and she told me how she has two sons, one is earning his masters degree right now in Scotland, in English Literature. The couple, who her husband and she were lunching with this day, were friends of theirs. All four of them are vegans. I explained that I would be a vegan, if I didn’t love cheese so much. The French woman told me to start buying Brie cheese from France only, because it is substantially better. Noted.
I ate a steel cut oatmeal with banana, maple syrup, and pecans. They all ordered giant salads and platters of lentils, hummus, mini sandwiches and soups. Everything looked and tasted great. I put my notes to the side, and spent the meal chatting with everyone about wine, cheese, museums, and the quality of the food here at the restaurant. I didn’t eat alone. When I got my bill, I stood up and told everyone it was lovely to meet them, and 8 voices replied back “oh it was nice to meet you! Have a nice day!” The sweet mother who was to my left said “Oh I hope I run into you again here”, (still disappointed she couldn’t be a matchmaker this day). It was a great lunch, and I had a moment where I was thinking how happy I am that I like to talk to people. Lunch could have been lonely, but it wasn’t because I took advantage of the communal table. Way to go Le Pain. Breaking bread with people and enjoying company around good food and wine really is what it’s all about.