family style

I'm sure that everyone that knows me by now knows that I'm going north to see my family and spend some time with them. I'll be arriving on Thursday morning and my parents will already be there and I have other family arriving over the next couple days. We all plan to go to one of these family style restaurants and I've made several jokes the last few days about all of us eating at which ever place we end up at. But today, I got to thinking, whose family are these places styled after? Whose family are they talking about? Surely for these places to be successful they must connect in some way to each family that visits shouldn't they? Take my family for example. Our family dinners go something like this. First thing we do, we all form a circle and hold hands and say a prayer asking that God bless the food we are about to receive. This can take 1 to 4 or 5 minutes. Sometimes one person will pray. Sometimes a few other family members add something. We finish and we start to eat. Eating is usually one to two hours. In between plates and helpings we laugh, tell stories of days gone by. We laugh some more, we eat some more. When we are all stuffed to the gills then we start on the coffee. No one gets up from the table. We just lean back a little so we have some breathing room. After drinking 7 or 8 pots of coffee someone will invariably pick up one of the platters and take something off of it and pass it around. Others take some. We start eating again. Tell some more stories. Then it's time for dessert! Fresh baked pie, ice cream, cake or whatever else. After that, more coffee. But that's my family. Can a family style place accompany all that? What's your families dining habits? They could be similar to ours but they might not be. What about the dysfunctional family? How will the restaurant serve and treat them? The mother sobbing, the father cursing and yelling at the kids. The kids, with their low self esteem because of years of being told they suck at everything they do, sitting staring off with a glazed look in their eyes. Or how about the family that never shares a meal together but instead sits out in the living room with the TV on watching some piece of crap reality show? Will the restaurant have a "No communicating" section set up for diners that can be served on a sofa or recliner and watch The Bachelor or Survivor or whatever else happens to be on. How about the blended families? Will the restaurant serve the mom and her kids one type of food cause that's what they like and the dad and his kids something completely different because they can't stand the type of food she and her kids grew up eating. It's all very confusing when you REALLY think about it but one things for sure. Where ever we end up Saturday night eating it will be interesting to see if their "Family Style" is like my families style.