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SWEDISH VOCABULARY

Table for one: the Swedish restaurant with an extreme approach to social distancing

Worried about the risk of infection while eating out? One restaurant in rural Sweden has taken the guidelines on social distancing to the extreme, serving individual diners in an empty field with the meal arriving by zipline.

Published: 24 June 2020 08:56 CEST
Table for one: the Swedish restaurant with an extreme approach to social distancing
The restaurant is located in the forest of Värmland. Photo: Jacque de Villiers/imagebank.sweden.se

Aptly named “Bord for en”, or “Table for One”, the unique al fresco eatery allows patrons to “let their worries go”, long enough to enjoy a meal, the restaurateurs told AFP.

“It's nice to just for once not think about 'Oh, am I going to catch the virus now?' 'Am I being a risk to anyone else?'”, says Linda Karlsson, 36, who hatched the idea with husband Rasmus Persson in Sweden's western Varmland province.

At a table set with a white linen tablecloth, David Nordstrom – who came by bicycle from Karlstad, 50 kilometres (31 miles) away – savours his three-course meal in the wide-open wilderness.

On the menu: Seaweed caviar on Swedish-style hash browns with smetana, yellow carrot ginger puree and sweet corn croquettes, and ginned blueberries with iced buttermilk for dessert. All delivered on a zipline that runs from the couple's kitchen window.

“I hadn't eaten food outside my apartment since early March. I wanted to get out of my voluntary quarantine and leave the city,” Nordstrom, the spot's first customer, told AFP. As he dined, a butterfly circled the table and a hawk soared high above.

FOOD IN SWEDEN:

The idea was born when Linda's parents, who are in a risk group, came for a visit.

“It was a windy day” in March, she recalled. “They came by and we said 'You need to go around the house', and we had put this nice table up with nice tableware, a nice linen cloth and two chairs.”

“We served them through the kitchen window and they really enjoyed it. We were able to spend time with them and it was safe, and we thought that maybe we should make this available for everybody.”

The couple opened their establishment on May 10th, but are fully booked through August 1st when they will close. They offer a set menu, but guests decide how much they want to pay for it.

Rasmus, a former chef turned freelance radio host, and Linda, a former waitress who is now a production company executive, work their normal jobs during the day before opening the restaurant at the end of the afternoon.

In Sweden, which has focused on voluntary measures in the fight against the new coronavirus and has reported more than 5,100 Covid-19 deaths, most restaurants have remained open throughout the pandemic. 

However, they must follow guidelines such as marking distance between groups of diners, offering table service only, and taking other measures to ensure social distancing. Restaurants, cafes and bars that violate these rules risk being shut down.

Swedish vocabulary

quarantine – (en) karantän

hawk – (en) hök

menu – (en) meny

tablecloth – (ett) bordsduk

distance – (ett) avstånd

 

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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