Diners roam from one station to the next, each defined by a type of food or a style of dining.
Some diners look at the vanishing numbers of places like Savoy and mourn the passing of the style of dining they represent.
This small, attractive newcomer seems well-suited to a college town for three reasons: modest prices, vegetarian dishes and an informal style of dining.
But then she might have to commit to a style of dining, give up her month of traveling every year, lose her easy out.
Our waiter explains that Etsu Izakaya is a traditional Japanese izakaya-style of dining and the small dishes are designed to be shared.
Meals were often shambolic, but food was shared out from a central plate, an informal style of dining not too far away from the Polpo restaurants today.
The food can be tasty, and the place fun, so it's easy to forget that this style of dining celebrates the South by ever so slightly condescending to it.
The appeal of this style of dining is threefold: it allows you to have as little or as much as you like; it offers a chance to sample a wide assortment of food; and it presents the devious delight of eating the last morsel on a miniplate before it completes its rounds.
The modern buffet style of dining evolved from this.
