I’ll have to first give a bit of background to this question:
I maintain my timeline in Google Maps on my phone, i.e. state that my present location is at a particular venue/business (when Google Maps is not sure at which of several places in the vicinity I am in).
Occasionally the Google Maps app then asks me some questions about the place (which I can answer or decline the answer.
The following is my English translation of the German language questions the app asks me; the exact wording in the English language setting may well be slightly different.
For example with restaurants some questions might be:
At your last visit, did you get a table at once (yes/no/don’t know)
Is the restaurant popular for: birthday parties (yes/no/don’t know)
Is the restaurant wheelchair accessible (yes/no/don’t know)
Does the restaurant offer the following dish: calamari (yes/no/don’t know)
Does the restaurant offer the following dish: Pizza Margherita (yes/no/don’t know)
etc. etc.
What makes me curious is the following question:
Is the restaurant popular for: small dishes to share (German question was: “… kleine Gerichte zum Teilen”)
As this is not a set phrase or well known concept in German dining I strongly suspect that this (small dishes to share) is an American concept translated to German (quite a number of questions that Google Maps asks me about have a strong American flavour, including the obsession about asking about parking for all kinds of businesses, but also the wording of other questions).
So: my question: Does the question “Is the restaurant popular for small dishes to share?” make a specific, precise sense to Americans? In what contexts should I answer ‘yes’?
“Small plates” or “shareable plates” would be the more common term here in the U.S. The idea is, rather than each person ordering food for just themselves (which would be the norm at most restaurants), the entire group orders a number of different “small plates,” for everyone to share. Restaurant/food styles like dim sum and tapas, in particular, are known for this.
It’s open for interpretation whether this counts as an “American” concept. While we do have it, it’s found mostly at ethnic places (where by “ethnic”, we mean “not British or German”).
Agreed. And, while it’d be an easily-understood term for Americans who frequent those kinds of restaurants, for people who only dine out at traditional American restaurants, they may have no concept of it.
I agree. Appetizers/starters do work that way in the US for a first-course, but whole restaurants centered around that concept? That does sound more like dim sum or tapas than anything I can think of specifically American.
In big US cities it’s becoming a thing for general foodie trendy places to offer the sharables. Which are similar to, but not identical with, appetizers.
Somebody who doesn’t do big city trendy would probably never have seen it. Yet.
Especially relevant to SDMB albeit not the OP, is that Chicago is a leader of this stuff.
Yes. I have seen some American restaurants (big city trendy, as above) promote themselves as offering this format of dining with the description “tapas style,” trusting it will be understood that this means ordering a selection of small plates that are not specifically Spanish tapas.
I have no explanation for why the app question in the OP is phrased like it is, beyond the general agreement that small shareable plates is indeed a hip trend in American dining.
“Family Style” is a thing at a lot of traditional Southern restaurants as well. I’ve been to more than one restaurant where you bought a “meal” for each person at the table, and all that meant was a different proportion of catfish vs. chicken or whatever that was brought on a big platter to the table.
This place is fairly famous (and highly delicious!), and it’s all family style, even when the table has multiple families sitting at it.
There have also been a few chain Italian restaurants – Maggiano’s Little Italy, and Buca di Beppo, for two examples – that specialize in family style, where you pick a few different dishes, and they bring big enough portions of those dishes for everyone at the table to be able to eat heartily.
Huh. I’m in Chicago, and I’m unaware of this, but, to be fair, I don’t eat out as often as I did ten or so years ago. Sounds exactly like the kind of place I’d love to visit. I’m a huge fan of the tapas concept.
IME, the closest analog to “small dish to share” is an appetizer “for the table.”
“For the table” DOES kinda imply at least three diners at the table. When dining with a single person, my habit was usually to say “We’ll be sharing the (insert name of appetizer here).”
Right. Forty years ago, the hospitality industry knew it as “grazing,” but it was no different from what is being described here. A bunch of appetizers for a table of two or more people. It became popular with the rise of sports bars (a new concept at the time), allowing you to eat chicken wings, nachos, veggies, and so on; while drinking beer and watching sports. Nobody ordered a meal, you just ordered a bunch of appetizers and munched on them during the game. Grazing.