What Is A Restaurant Chair?

Most restaurant chairs are standard, four-legged, straight-backed designs that provide short-term seating for customers. The term doesn’t refer to one particular type of chair but rather a general reference to several different types of chairs used for this purpose.

Main Usage

The restaurant chair’s main usage is described by its name. Its only function is to provide short-term seating for diners.

Mission Shaker Restaurant Chair for Types of Restaurant Chairs

Types of Restaurant Chairs

There’s technically no such thing as a “restaurant chair,” which means no one has ever invented a specific type of chair designed exclusively for eateries. Rather, several different types of chairs are used in the restaurant business. These include:

  • Banquet Chair – Lightweight, durable, stackable, or folding chairs.
  • Side Chair – A basic, functional, four-legged, straight-backed chair.
  • Captain’s Chair – These are quite similar to Side Chairs, with the key difference being the chair arms. In-home dining rooms, you find these at the head of the table.
Banquet Chair Leftfront
Banquet Chair
Side Chair Leftfront
Side Chair
Captain’s Chair Leftfront
Captain’s Chair
  • Parsons Chair – A variant of the side chair in which the seat and back are covered and padded.
  • Modern/Contemporary Chair—These chairs typically feature metal legs combined with plastic or bent wood for the seat and back.
  • Mission/Shaker – Built with simple, clean lines and no ornate details or finishing touches. The seatback is typically constructed of thin wood slats running vertically, framed by thicker wood slats.
Parsons Chair for Types of Restaurant Chairs
Parsons Chair
Modern/Contemporary Chair for Types of Restaurant Chairs
Modern/Contemporary Chair
Mission/Shaker Chair for Types of Restaurant Chairs
Mission/Shaker Chair
  • Ladderback—The chair back is defined by wooden slats running horizontally (like rungs on a ladder). It often has a wicker seat, though this can vary. Country cafes tend to gravitate to this type of restaurant seating.
  • Windsor – An early English chair that became one of America’s most popular seating styles. Featuring bowed back framing spindles that make up the chair back and spindle legs, these are also quite popular in country cafes (Cracker Barrel uses chairs like this).
Ladderback Chair for Type of Restaurant Chair
Ladderback Chair
Windsor Chair for Type of Restaurant Chair
Windsor Chair

Restaurant chairs can be made from various materials (wood, metal, plastic, etc.) and be upholstered or non-upholstered. Of course, chairs aren’t the only viable restaurant seating options. Restaurant supply companies also sell booths in a variety of sizes and configurations.

Regardless of the type of restaurant chair used, the goal is the same: to provide reasonably comfortable, short-term seating for dinner guests. All these models accomplish that goal.​

Origin and Brief History of Restaurant Chairs

Restaurants are an important part of our cultural makeup, so it’s no surprise that they originated in Paris, France, in the mid-eighteenth century. The word “restaurant” is French and refers to beef broth thought to have restorative properties.

Of course, selling food for profit has occurred throughout recorded history, but seating options have evolved and changed over time. In the earliest days, taverns and inns typically featured three- or four-legged stools and simple bench seating.

Chairs, when and where they existed at all, were reserved for the wealthy.

Restaurants didn’t begin employing chairs until they became commonplace in homes. This process began in the Renaissance era when bench seating gave way increasingly to individual chair seating.

The increase in the general availability eventually led to the creation of various restaurant chairs commonly used today.​

Some Current Brands of Restaurant Chairs