Fine diners will recognise the purse stool as a familiar sight in high-end dining rooms. They are the kind of amenity you see in three-Michelin-star French spots, where an army of waiters escort a woman to the bathroom and there are several courses of amuse-bouche – or starters – before a meal actually starts.
Now, however, those opulent emblems are taking up real estate in more casual dining rooms, from brasseries in Miami to steakhouses in Boston. Garden Table Restaurant
Besides the practical benefits of such stools, cultural superstitions from South America to Russia have added to the call for companion seats. In those countries, putting a bag on the floor is bad luck as it means you’ll lose money. There’s also the question of safety: a clutch that’s within your line of sight is safer than one on the back of your chair.
These purse stools can take many forms, from a mini coat rack to a basket. Among the dining spots you might not have expected to find purse furniture is Rare Steakhouse at the Encore Boston Harbour resort in the Massachusetts capital. In addition to comfort food, the restaurant also provides little white upholstered chairs, which match the decor.
At the more recently opened Riviera Restaurant, located in yet another sister property the Maybourne Riviera in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, there are 20 tan purse stools. Bryan O’Sullivan Studio, which designed the restaurant, made them to match the decor.
No place has embraced the purse stool quite like the Miami area. At Aba in Bal Harbour, the laid-back Middle Eastern mini chain from the Chicago-based hospitality group Lettuce Entertain You, where cold mezzes and kebabs dominate the menu, there are little wooden stools for bags. (The Austin and Chicago Aba outposts do not feel it’s necessary to stock purse stools. Yet?)
At Shingo, the recently opened 14-seat omakase spot in Coral Gables, chef-owner Shingo Akikuni has hand-woven baskets for guests to put their clutches and purses in. “I’m happy to see these points of service becoming more of a trend,” he says. “Fine dining-only service points have made their way into more mainstream restaurants as service, generally, has become elevated across the industry.”
Even Stephen Starr – who made New York’s Meatpacking District a destination for boisterous brasserie dining at Pastis – has adopted the purse stool lifestyle, at least in South Florida. Although the fancy accessory is not an amenity traditionally found in a hectic dining hall, he has installed little coatlike stands for bags at his three Miami spots: Le Zoo, Makoto and even, yes, the latest outpost of Pastis.
Restaurant Chair “A restaurant has to go beyond its food to draw in a guest, and paying attention to the details is where you can show an added level of hospitality.” Starr says. “We don’t want our guests to be distracted by small, yet important, details like where to hang their bag. By providing a place for your purse, we take that worry away for the rest of your time there.”