As in Friday Cafes, each table will have a posted topic and a host. Participants have 20 minutes at each table and will sit at three different tables. Cafe begins as each person picks up fruit and cheese, soup or some other first course. They take their plate to a table and begin talking about the posted topic. After twenty minutes, people pick up a second course such as sandwiches.
Hosts return to the same tables, and everyone else moves to a new table.
This process is repeated a third time with dessert. At the recent Homestead Cafe in Mill Valley we experimented with beginning a Cafe by asking each person at a four person table to tell the story of his or her life and then comment on the major themes in their present life that connect to the story. We allowed about 20-30 minutes for each person to tell his or her story. The listeners then gave some feedback about what they heard, or asked questions. This process brought us to deeper understanding and connection with each other.