Stammtisch

Bars and restaurants often have tables with a sign saying “Reserviert” or “Stammtisch”, reserved for regulars. The Goethe Institut has a Stammtisch every Wednesday evening at a local bar where students meet up to socialise and practice German. We have seen Stammtisches in restaurants where groups of friends get together, say weekly or monthly, for a meal. On Saturday evening we were invited to a particularly nice Stammtisch. This one has been going for twenty years in a local (Lokal!) pub. At 9 or 10 p.m.invited people come to discuss all sorts of subjects from their different perspectives as artists, scientists, architects and critics. One of the ten people there that night around the large round  table was an art critic. When we asked what she’d recommend to see she joked that the best exhibition was always the one that has just finished, and that she would have recommended the Hokusai, which luckily we had seen. Interestingly she saw it twice, the second time going back with a magnifying glass to see the tiny detail. Another current exhibition she recommended was that of Faces of the Renaissance, so I’m off there this week.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stammtisch