Sideboards Filling New Roles In Today’s World

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Originally designed for use by servants who would stage the food for serving the guests seated at the dining table, the sideboard has always been considered primarily a serving piece. Since most of us don’t have servants these days, our sideboards typically now fill the role of a buffet table. We load them with foods and drinks and then stand back and allow our guests to help themselves. The sideboard has been an integral part of better dining room furnishings for centuries. The older ones were massive and not only had the large flat surface for chafing dishes and other food-service items, the cabinets and drawers beneath also stored some of the large serving pieces that every good home possessed. Let’s face it. Few of us have a large lead crystal punch bowl with forty matching cups to tuck away somewhere. If we did, however, the sideboards of yesteryear would have held them with ease.

The size of the sideboard has dwindled as their role has changed. Today, the sideboard is smaller and many times is even sold as a buffet or server. Meant to sit against a wall of the dining room, it often has a small raised back with a long, rectangular mirror. The mirror stems from the days when the butler could look into it and view the guests at the table with great discretion. In this manner, he would be able to discern when they were ready for the next course. Nowadays, of course, the mirror is mostly for looks.

Having a sideboard is not a prerequisite for entertaining. It does, however, make serving up a big dinner or refreshments for a party a lot simpler, leaving the table free for folks to sit at while they eat. Even without servants, these unique pieces still provide excellent service.