Adult high chairs in restaurants. Why?

[Perd Hapley]

A lot of restaurants have tables and chairs several inches higher than usual, so that an average-sized man has his feet dangling above the floor. Why? This just seems uncomfortable to me.

[makattak]

A lot of restaurants have tables and chairs several inches higher than usual, so that an average-sized man has his feet dangling above the floor. Why? This just seems uncomfortable to me.

Encourage people not to stay too long after they finish eating?

That would be my guess.

[MicroBalrog]

Imitating the style of chairs seen in bars?

[Doggy Daddy]

So your waitperson can visit and have a conversation with you at your level and get all friendly and social and stuff so that you'll feel like everybody knows your name there and you'll come back more often?

DD

[Ben]

As a taller than average man, I like them for the same reason I prefer getting in my truck to bending down to get in a dinky little car and smacking my head on the top of the door frame.

But most restaurants I see those types of tables and chairs in seem to be of the pub / sports bar variety, so it probably gives people an ambiance similar to sitting at the bar. One place I go to a lot for lunch has about half regular tables and half higher ones. When I sit in the high ones, the support bar across the bottom of the chair is at the perfect height for a comfortable footrest.

[makattak]

Imitating the style of chairs seen in bars?

Now think like an economist. Why are bar stools so high? Are they comfortable?

[Perd Hapley]

So your waitperson can visit and have a conversation with you at your level and get all friendly and social and stuff so that you'll feel like everybody knows your name there and you'll come back more often?

DD

You mean, so you can look down her shirt?   

[41magsnub]

I hate those things.  With my stubby little legs at some restaurants I almost have to climb up the chair!  One restaurant we measured it and I am actually slightly taller sitting in that chair than standing.

[TechMan]

So your waitperson can visit and have a conversation with you at your level and get all friendly and social and stuff so that you'll feel like everybody knows your name there and you'll come back more often?

DD

So this:

[wmenorr67]

Probably has to do with something along the lines to prevent the waitstaff from having to bend over so far to place things on the tables.

[MicroBalrog]

Now think like an economist. Why are bar stools so high? Are they comfortable?

I always read that the reason they're this high is so drunk people are incapable of holding their balance on a chair. Once the client - thus does the tale have it - is starting having difficulties staying on the chair it's a good time to stop serving him drinks.

[makattak]

I always read that the reason they're this high is so drunk people are incapable of holding their balance on a chair. Once the client - thus does the tale have it - is starting having difficulties staying on the chair it's a good time to stop serving him drinks.

And if he can't stay on the chair, he is encouraged to leave so that they can serve more people drinks.

The chairs are probably designed to encourage customer turnover. In a bar, you don't want someone sitting on a barstool nursing a beer all night. You want a guy with one beer to go seek a more comfortable seat elsewhere.

It's nice to think it is done out of altruistic motives in order to keep employees from bending over or judging whether or not a drunk has had too much, but I always go for self-interest as an explanation first.

[MicroBalrog]

It's nice to think it is done out of altruistic motives in order to keep employees from bending over or judging whether or not a drunk has had too much, but I always go for self-interest as an explanation first.

Having people have too much at your bar does not seem to be conducive to good business.

You want to avoid this for hygiene and safety reasons. No altruism at all required.

[makattak]

Having people have too much at your bar does not seem to be conducive to good business.

You want to avoid this for hygiene and safety reasons. No altruism at all required.

This is true. However, how long have bar stools had their design? I'm not certain that such concerns were all that pressing when the bar stool was first designed.

[GigaBuist]

How drunk do you have to be to fall off a bar stool?  In all my years I've never seen somebody do that.

[makattak]

How drunk do you have to be to fall off a bar stool?  In all my years I've never seen somebody do that.

I don't have any experience in that realm, so I can't difinitively answer that.


I would bet the answer is, "very", though.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I think, if you go back far enough, the bartender's comfort and safety does play into the hight (along with the safety of the bottles)

Having a bar with that hight creates a real barrier between intoxicated sheninagens of ones coustamers. Fights and idiots are more likely to stay on the other side, if your barrier is high enough. Also, having actual seating is a relativly new thing. The hight of the bar is equal to having a surface comfortable to someone standing, which is a good thing for coustamers who don't have a chair.

So when seating became more commen it was built to fit the bar already in place rather then redo the bar for the seating.

This is purely conjecture, but it makes sense to me.

And, fyi, I like those seats. I can be tall for a change. 

[Tallpine]

I like taller tables and stools.  Probably has something to do with my old back and knees, and getting up and down (I like pickups better than cars too ).  Also, I feel less vulnerable, and it's easier and faster to get on your feet if you suddenly have to.

[Ben]

Also, I feel less vulnerable, and it's easier and faster to get on your feet if you suddenly have to.

That's actually a really good point that I didn't think about until I practiced it in a defensive pistol class about a half a year ago. The instructor had us in a "cafe scenario" where we sat in a standard chair in front of a table, tucked in like we were eating a meal. Had to draw and hit a steel plate from seated, then get up and hit two more on the move. I wasn't the only one to get a little tangled in the chair the first time out, and thinking back, it seemed me and the other two taller guys in the class had the most trouble getting our legs out from under the table. A bar stool would have been easy.

[Doggy Daddy]

You mean, so you can look down her shirt?   

Well, you just took that to a whole new level, dincha?   

DD

[MicroBalrog]

You mean, so you can look down her shirt?   

You begin to understand, young padawan.

[Tallpine]

I think Fistful just wants to bar stools 

[CNYCacher]

How drunk do you have to be to fall off a bar stool?  In all my years I've never seen somebody do that.

I never fell off a bar stool, but I had the floor knock me off of one once. . .

[Hawkmoon]

A lot of restaurants have tables and chairs several inches higher than usual, so that an average-sized man has his feet dangling above the floor. Why? This just seems uncomfortable to me.

It IS uncomfortable. My wife bought a dining room set with bar stool height chairs. They are a nuisance to get onto and off of, and they are uncomfortable. I don't want to rest my feet on the lower leg brace, first because I don't want to destroy the finish, and second because I'm sure the ends will shear off and then there won't BE a lower leg brace.

Seems to be a new form of punishment being inflicted on the populace by interior desecrators and furniture designers.

[Tallpine]

I guess to each their own ...

If I ever replace my office desk, I want to set up a workbench height desk where I can either sit on a tall stool or stand up.