ESTHER BECK Public Relations / SONNEN Bern; no separate photographer credit is stated on the Presseportal release.
Sonnen à Table transformed a single table inside Bern’s Michelin-starred Restaurant ZOE into a six-seat theatrical dining format from June 9 to July 8, 2026. Artist Janique Sonnen created the concept and visual dramaturgy; ZOE co-chef Maël Hêche translated it into a four-act vegetarian menu built around Swiss verjus. Illustrated tablecloths changed during the meal, and the drinks programme functioned as part of the story rather than a separate pairing. The official Restaurant ZOE site provides the restaurant context.
The Concept
Sonnen à Table was designed as a tightly scripted dining performance rather than a standard tasting menu. Each evening began at the same time for all six guests, who sat together at one table inside Restaurant ZOE in Bern’s old town. The meal was structured as a prologue, four acts and two interludes, with each course tied to a memory, place or symbol associated with Bern.
Artist Janique Sonnen developed the concept and creative direction. Three illustrated tablecloths acted as a changing stage set: the first introduced sparse Bern motifs, the second added colour and movement, and the third layered architecture, nature and symbols into a fuller image before the first cloth returned for the final act. Her artwork also appeared on the restaurant walls, extending the visual narrative beyond the table itself.
Co-chef Maël Hêche translated that structure into a vegetarian menu. The prologue used butter-browned Züpfe served on warm Aare stone. Later courses referenced the Rosengarten, Zibelemärit, Berner Platte and Suure Mocke through dishes such as hay-infused panna cotta with verjus sorbet, roasted-onion consommé, marinated celeriac and mountain-potato millefeuille. The final act paired rhubarb, verjus, meringue and buckwheat foam.
The drinks were not conventional wine pairings. Three SONNEN verjus expressions made from unripe Swiss grapes — Blanc, Rosé and Rouge — were woven through the food and served as the non-alcoholic accompaniment. The format cost CHF 128 per person and ran only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with all six seats sold individually rather than as one private table.
What Is Actually New
The strongest innovation is the way Sonnen à Table synchronised food, visual art, seating, timing and drinks into one dramaturgical system. Restaurants often add theatrical elements to a tasting menu, but here the table itself changed during the evening, and each visual shift was tied to the progression of the meal.
The six-person communal format matters because it alters the social structure of dinner. Guests did not simply book separate tables; they entered the same performance at the same time and experienced each act together. That makes the meal closer to a small theatre production than to conventional fine dining, while still keeping the kitchen central.
A second distinctive element is the role of verjus. Instead of using it only as an ingredient or offering standard non-alcoholic pairings, the concept treated three verjus styles as recurring narrative devices. They appeared both in dishes and as drinks, creating a flavour thread through the full evening.
None of these ideas is individually unprecedented. Immersive dining, communal chef’s tables and alcohol-free pairings already exist. What is uncommon is their concentration into a six-seat format with illustrated tablecloths functioning as a literal stage set and a menu written as a four-act story about one city. The concept therefore feels less like a decorated tasting menu and more like a temporary restaurant-performance hybrid built around tightly controlled sequencing.
Why People Want This
The appeal is unusually concrete: guests are not only eating a menu, they are watching the dinner change around them. The illustrated tablecloths give visible progress to the evening, while the act structure makes each course feel connected to a larger sequence rather than arriving as an isolated plate.
The six-seat communal table also creates a form of participation without asking guests to perform. Everyone begins together, experiences the same visual changes and follows the same rhythm. That can create a stronger sense of occasion than a conventional table-for-two tasting menu, particularly because the event is deliberately small and temporary.
The Bern references add another layer. Rather than presenting the city through literal landmarks or tourist storytelling, the dishes reinterpret local memories, foods and places. That gives local guests recognition while still giving visitors something to decode.
The non-alcoholic verjus programme broadens the format without feeling like a compromise. Because verjus is structurally embedded in the food and the narrative, guests choosing not to drink alcohol are not pushed into a secondary pairing track.
The main consumer draw is therefore not spectacle for its own sake. It is the combination of intimacy, discovery and progression: one table, a fixed group, visible scene changes and a menu that gives people something to follow from beginning to end.
WBC Verdict
Sonnen à Table is worth watching because the theatrical layer is built into the mechanics of the meal rather than added as decoration. The six-seat limit, synchronised start, changing tablecloths and recurring verjus create a coherent format with clear operational constraints. Its weakness is also obvious: this level of choreography is hard to scale and may work best precisely because it is temporary and tiny. Still, it shows how a restaurant can turn one table into a complete cultural format without relying on projection mapping, expensive technology or constant audience participation.