Table Trend Alert: Sabre’s Skinny French Flatware and Its High/Low Lookalikes

Of all the flatware patterns vying for a spot on your table, one has risen of late to become the It fork, spoon, and knife. That honor goes to Sabre’s Bistrot line of skinny French flatware—and the many variations and knockoffs it has inspired.

An elegant, well-crafted update of classic bistroware, itself an update of 18th-century wood- and bone-handled cutlery with visible rivets on the handles, Bistrot’s appeal may come from the fact that it’s produced in a confetti of colors. The company was founded in 1993 by husband-and-wife team Francis and Pascale Gelb, who applied his expertise as a goldsmith and her foodie focus to come up with an everyday line that disrupted the formality and predictability of tableware by, in their words, “combining utility with delight.”

Forged just outside of Paris of top-quality 18/10 stainless steel with resin handles, their designs have become ubiquitous: seemingly every retailer that sells cutlery—from Hawkins New York, Hudson Grace, and East Fork to Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Urban Outfitters—has started offering pieces from the Bistrot collection. And plenty of others, like Ikea and Home Depot, have come up with something like them. Here’s a look.

High

Above: Sabre’s Bistrot in a matte finish known as Vintage Solid, is $86.50 for four pieces directly from Sabre. Noir, shown here, is one of 26 available colors; there are also an array of finishes and patterns, such as gingham and tortoise, all of which Sabre encourages users to mix and match.

N.B.: The brand is no longer a mom ‘n pop: two big French investment companies took over majority ownership of Sabre in recent years, which also explains its enormous growth.

Above: Sabre Paris Bistrot flatware in brilliant stainless steel, the other available finish; a four-piece set is $75 from Perigold, which offers 26 colors. Above: A small sampling of Sabre Paris Bistrot flatware in both Brilliant and Vintage finishes, from Hawkins New York, where it is currently sold out. Above: Sabre also offers its Bistrot flatware with teak handles, a set of four is $84 from Goodee. To preserve the wood, handwashing is advised. The colorful resin handles are composed of a BPA-free plastic that can be put through the dishwasher with a caveat: over time, heat can degrade the material and cause it to leach microplastics into the water system, where most but not all get filtered out. Above: Sabre’s Bistrot Flatware in a pearly finish from Big Night; $98 for a four-piece set. Above: Sabre’s Italian twin? Vietri of Italy’s Pastello flatware is handcrafted for the company by Bugatti in Lombardy and comes in 10 “crayon colors”; $75 for a set of three. Above: Designed by UK great David Mellor in 1975, the Provençal line was the first to combine stainless steel with molded resin and brass rivets. It has been in continuous production ever since, and Commune design of Los Angeles recently introduced this cream-colored version. The Commune for David Mellor Flatware Set, $198 for a set of four, is exclusively available from the Commune Shop.

Low

Above: Zara Home’s three-piece Children’s Flatware Set with Warm Colors is $29.90. Above: The Tinib Blanc Rev 6-Piece Cutlery Set in 38 colors is $25 from Korean online shop W Concept. Sabre also offers Bistrot chopsticks. Above: Bogen’s made-in-South Korea Sentier Satin Dinner Set is $50 for four pieces from Ousia. Unlike all the other brands featured here, this one is specified as not dishwasher safe. Above: Doftsköld, a new flatware design from Ikea, is $39.99 for a 20-piece set. It comes in black and off-white. Above: The Martha Stewart Watercliff 16-Piece Flatware Set in Linen is available from a number of sources, including JCPenney, for $80. A seemingly identical Martha Stewart Garden Cottage 16-Piece Flatware Set in black is $30.67 at Home Depot.

Featured image from Big Night.