A lot of places around here try to differentiate their establishments by having different furniture. Something iconic and memorable will suffice. Other places go for the stock standard chairs and tables whereas others, as I have been told, rent their furniture from a place that leases furniture to restaurants specifically because most restaurants don't know if they are going to be able to stay in business so if they go under, they don't have to actually sell the furniture, they just sell it back (sort of) to the place that they acquired it from.
Recently I was in a place whose furniture seemed kind of cool because it was made of of barrels of sorts but upon sitting down I found it is completely impractical and uncomfortable.
For starters, I immediately slammed my toes into the crazy huge legs on the tables. That is a fantastic way to start your meal, right? Then when I tried to sit down my legs barely fit under the table. Things were going to be interesting as far as trying to eat at these tables but one thing that foreigners need to understand is that Vietnamese places don't seem to understand that places that cater to foreigners don't always know that we don't like to eat at low-rider tables whereas for the locals this is a very common thing to do if you are at cheaper places.
For me, the experience wasn't unique and memorable so much as it was painfully memorable in the way that I am very unlikely to return here because it was so uncomfortable.
I was the only customer in this place while I was there although one other person did come in when I was on my way out. I would imagine that the state of their chairs might be one of the reasons why this is the case. The food I had was also not very good so I suppose that all goes hand in hand.
I suppose their intentions were good when they decided to try to set themselves apart from other businesses by having their chairs be like this but perhaps repurposed oil drums or whatever these things are, aren't the best thing to build chairs and tables out of. I know that my now injured foot feels that way about them.
If you look in the distance on the first picture you can see there are normal chairs outside. I wonder why they chose to do that outside but inside they decided to get all artsy? The only thing I can think of is that they probably pull the chairs that are outside, inside at the end of every night and these oil drum chairs and tables probably weigh 100 lbs each.