If you’ve got even the slightest OCD bone in your body (I’ve got many) you’ll no doubt wince in agony when sat in a restaurant that merrily places their flatware direct on their table. It’s at this point I usually fabricate some import rest out of paper of my napkin while pretending to chit chat.
As the folks from Dining Elevated note (the really OCD might want to look away here):
Is your favorite restaurant serving you more than just the food you ordered? I’m talking germs — those invisible little microbes that might be multiplying all around your dinner plate. According to Dr. Charles Gerba (aka Dr. Germ) –a University of Arizona microbiologist….. odds are, the tabletop you’re using is loaded with germs — even if you just watched your server wipe it off. Why? Because, despite the fact that restaurants are required to clean tables after each use, what they clean them with is questionable. “They’re supposed to soak the sponges or cloths in disinfectant but often they don’t. So as they continue to wipe table after table, all they’re really doing is distributing more germs” says the doctor. Dr. Gerba said his team swabbed tables before and after the server wiped it down and typically found more bacteria after it was wiped than before.
Yup. Mine and your worst fears confirmed, bare tabletops are not the place I want my knife and fork resting. Anyway these handy flatware rests aim to solve that. They’re equally usable for home dining place settings as they are for consumers to discretely tuck away in a purse for dining out. Dining Elevated note:
Dining Elevated flatware rests save your forks, knives and spoons from ever having to touch the tabletop again! Dining Elevated rests literally uplift your flatware allowing them to lie on clean and super chic looking rests so that you don’t have to place flatware on the tabletop (or your napkin or plate anymore.)
The flatware rests can suit a variety of home decor styles, as they come available in:
- Clear acrylic
- Solid brass
- Solid stone
- Stainless steel
- Travertine
- Black walnut
- Solid steel
- Solid copper
- Solid aluminum
I found myself particular fond of the clean looking aluminum rest. If they look familiar, there’s a reason too; the likes of the TV show Top Chef as well as destination hotels like the Waldorf Astoria, W Hotels and Hard rock use them too. If that’s not enough street cred I don’t know what is.
Single rests start from $11.95 and look a million bucks. If only used to add a little pizzazz to your next dinner party, they get our thumbs up alone. Between me and you, I’m always going to have one tucked in my bag when dining out…
Disclosure: Dining Elevated provided us with samples for the purpose of this review.
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.
I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen. Follow along on Instagram too!