At dinner tonight, Lily and Eugene told us a story about how recently in Orlando, their real estate broker became somewhat offended when, at Houston’s, she was not offered a black linen napkin, and was rather given a white napkin. Our friends found this quite odd, especially when the next day, at another restaurant, the host made it a point to give Lily a black napkin.
Knowing that Jessica and I are into food, they asked us about the phenomenon. We hadn’t heard of it, but I guessed it had to do with the fact that often white napkins leave white lint on your clothing, which, in fact, happened to me just today at lunch at Markt!
Thinking that it may be a Southern thing, perhaps with etiquette, I called my sister and brother-in-law because (a) they know tons of trivia; and (b) Stephen is from Texas. They hadn’t heard of it.
But by the time I got home, Kasi had done a bit of research and found some interesting discussion about this at Savory Tidbits. Here’s an excerpt (go read the whole thing):
A few weeks ago I ate dinner with some friends at The Grill on the Alley, in Beverly Hills, CA. After a drink at the bar (which is not optional, you will be made to wait at the bar even if you show up on time for your reservation), we were escorted to our table. When we were all seated, the hostess asked me and one of my friends if we would like a black napkin. I looked at my friend and back at the hostess and said, “black napkin?” as if I had mis-heard her. She said, very matter-of-factly, “Yes. A black napkin for your dress.”Filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.I finally got it. OH! A black napkin so the lint from the white napkin doesn’t get all over my black dress – “No” I said, “Thank you, I’m ok.” But then as soon as she left. I wanted the black napkin. I was curious about the black napkin. As she passed by our table, I leaned over and said, “You know, I will take a black napkin.”
I work for a linens manufacturer, and we find more and more upscale restaurants are interested in stocking black napkins. The funny thing is, if you have a high-quality cotton napkin, they won’t pill on your clothing. It’s when you have a lower-quality napkin (especially a blend of polyester and cotton) tha pilling/linting can occur. I guess it just makes people feel better though, knowing that if (by chance) the napkin does pill, the pills will blend into their dark clothing.
Hi Anonymous, Thanks for an expert update!
This just happened to my sister in Tunica, MS. She called from a nice restaurant to ask me what that was about? She was offered a black napkin, as she was wearing black slacks. We could only guess the exact same thing as has been stated here. Glad to know our hunch was spot on! You have to love the internet to get answers for anything you need to know!
Hi Melissa, glad we could confirm your hunch!
I refuse a black napkin for several reasons. As “Anonymous” wrote, a poor quality napkin has lint, a good quality one doesn’t. When I see black napkins, I know that the restaurant is a sucker for spin and trend and sacrifices quality. Just wait for the day you have a touch of an oil based food that lands on your napkin and somewhere during the night, your napkin gets turned upside down and you are stuck with mysterious shacow your dry cleaners can’t get out. What if the food you are eating has a brightly coloured spice like paprika and you go to wipe the corners of your mouth and you blot bright orange all over your face because you can’t see the clean part of the napking because it’s black. If the restaurant is being cheap with its napkins, what else is it cutting corners on?
Anonymous, you bring up a good point about not seeing possible stains on a black napkin. However, I don’t think I would immediately assume a restaurant sacrifices quality just because they supply black napkins…it’s possible customers just requested it if they don’t know as much as you and other anonymous do about napkins….
A white napkin ontop of a black background, often gives the impression(in the case of men)that the patron is wearing an apron in other words you are sharing the table with the Maitre’D.
NelsonL, thank you for the interesting perspective!
Hello
The black napkin should be an option in every restaurant. I just ate at a very upscale restaurant and walked out with lint all over my black pants. The black napkin should be marketed like deodorant is: black pants and dress friendly.