The Story Behind the Biergarten Table That Became a Terrasse Staple

What’s wrong with the good old-fashioned picnic table? A lot—at least in the eyes of graphic designer Lea Berger.

“It’s like there was no design thought behind it,” she says. “It’s just super heavy, so you can’t easily move it around. It’s not really beautiful. And it’s meant to be outdoors, but it doesn’t age well.”

That’s one of the reasons why, in 2012, she decided to buy something she remembered fondly from her childhood: a German biergarten table.

“They’re pretty much everywhere in Germany,” she says. “In Hamburg, they have very large sidewalks so businesses just put them outside for people to sit. In Berlin, you have them in the parks, under trees. They fold up but they actually look good.”