But the move was also couched in a broader campaign strategy to encourage Mr. Romney to reveal a more caring, personal side of himself, a counter to his reputation as a data-driven technocrat.
Felix, the master baker at Rue du Cherche-Midi, was standing on the left side of a wooden counter, molding dough into leaves.
"We wanted people to be able to meet Cubans and eat with them, rather than just see them on the other side of a service counter," Mr. Shillitto said.
"Remember that time I came in for the exhaust cut-out switch?" Mr. Alcazar said excitedly to Ryan Chua, RCT's owner, who was leaning casually on the other side of a tall counter that doubled as a display case.
"La La Land" (2016) chronicles the joys and disappointments of a young actress navigating Hollywood as an aspiring star ― the auditions, the swanky parties, the brushes with fame from the wrong side of a coffee counter.
On the opposite side of the counter, a team of young female employees scooped frozen treats, sweating.
On the other side of the counter, a representative of Peyman Publishing of Tehran said the fair made good business for his company, with books on poetry, history and cooking in high demand.
Something so seemingly basic -- acknowledging that the person on the other side of the counter had a name, and taking three seconds to ask how his day was going -- had an effect.
Sew around one side of the counter; sew a short felt giraffe in the middle of the stitched side with a cross stitch on the short felt geranium.
The long counter facing the pizza oven and other cooking equipment is too tall for the stools, which are scrunched too close together, and a panel on the far side of the counter rises too high to permit a clear glimpse of what cooks are doing, seemingly negating the whole point of the arrangement.
