Swedish Restaurant Takes Social Distancing to New Level With Tables in the Middle of the Forest

By now, you’ve probably noticed that the U.S. hasn’t really done a great job reopening restaurants and bars. Not only are cases still rising in some states, but many places have already been forced to stop allowing customers to dine in and go back to curbside pick-up. Restaurants in the states and areas where dining in is currently allowed look more like some crazy futuristic movie anyway, with giant barriers between tables and strange markings on the floors explaining how to social distance. It’s enough to make you wish there was a way you could just go out to eat and not worry about being around any potentially contagious diners. One Swedish restaurant came up with the perfect plan. It’s so simple, we’re surprised nobody else is doing it.

That’s because, instead of having customers dine inside giant Flaming Lips-esque plastic bubbles, the tables at a new restaurant in Sweden are literally in the middle of a nature preserve. It’s called Nowhere Restaurant and it was created by non-alcoholic wine brand Oddbird.

Photo: Martin Barraud (Getty Images)

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It’s pretty simple. Instead of trying to place tables 6 feet apart in hopes of keeping diners safe, the folks at Oddbird staggered tables in a nature preserve outside of Stockholm. One is in the middle of a beautiful forest, one is in the middle of a field that might give you visions of a hopefully less gory Midsommar, and another is on a dock beside a lake. It’s only open until Aug. 20 and it honestly doesn’t matter which table you get because you’re not going to even see any other customers. But, you might run into a woodland creature or two. That’s OK with us.

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