The marble bistro table question, answered plainly

"Do you have marble?" It is one of the first things owners ask when they picture the counter and the window tables of a new shop. White stone with grey veins, a cold surface under a cup, the old Paris cafe in a photograph. The honest answer from us is short: we carry tops that look like marble, and we carry real stone in granite, but we do not carry a solid marble top.

That is not bad news for a working cafe. It means you choose between a marble look on a resin or laminate top, which behaves like resin or laminate, and a granite top, which is stone. Both can put the look you want on the floor. This piece sets out what each one is, so nobody at your counter calls a resin top stone.

What the material line tells you

Every top we list has a material line on its page, and it settles the question in one word. If it says Resin or Laminate, the marble is a finish. If it says Granite, the top is stone. Nothing else on the page changes that, not the color name, not the photo.

Here is the rule of thumb to keep: the look comes from the color line, the behavior comes from the material line. Buy for the second and choose from the first.

Three marble looks we carry

The laminate top with a PVC edge offers a whole group of stone and marble patterns: Calcutta marble, white Carrara, Bianco Romano, Marmo Bianco, a black Alicante, a grey and a clay tone. It is 1 1/4 inches thick and comes in sizes from a 24-inch square two-top to a 60-inch round, plus drop-leaf squares that open into rounds. Underneath the pattern it is laminate, so it wipes like the rest of your laminate tops.

Our resin tabletop in a black marble finish is a dark top, 1 1/8 inches thick, in rounds, squares and rectangles. Its sizes start at a 24-inch round and run to 42-inch rounds and a 30 by 72 rectangle. It is listed for indoor use.

For the shop front, the light marble resin top with a phenolic edge is the one listed for both indoor and patio use. It is a slimmer top at 1/2 inch, an umbrella hole is optional, and it runs from a 24 by 24 square to a 48-inch round.

All three sit with our other table tops. The resin ones have their own page under resin table tops.

Granite, the real stone

If you want stone under the cup, granite is how we supply it. The granite tabletop is 1 1/4 inches thick and comes in two colors, Giallo Gold and Uba-Tuba. Its listing covers patio and indoor use, in sizes from a 24-inch round and a 24 by 30 rectangle through to a 54-inch round.

Granite does not look like Carrara. Giallo Gold is a warm speckled stone and Uba-Tuba a dark green-black one, and neither has the long white veins people picture when they say marble. What it gives you is the weight, the cold surface and the feel of stone under the hand. For some owners that matters more than the veining; for others the look is the whole point, and a marble-look laminate serves them better.

Stone is heavy kit, so start with what stands under it. The two-thirds rule applies with extra force here: a round stone top wants a base reaching no less than two thirds of its width. Say you put a 36-inch round of granite in the corner by the case: two thirds of 36 is 24 inches, so a 22-inch base falls short and the 30-inch size of a round cast iron base is your pick. For a 30-inch granite round the figure is 20 inches, and the 22-inch base covers it. Then think about the person who moves that table at the last sweep, and leave the stone tables where they stand. Browse every size under granite table tops.

Real marble, and why we steer away

Real marble is a soft stone, and it reacts to acid. Lemon, vinegar, wine and some cleaners can etch dull marks into a polished marble face. In a shop that serves lemonade, salad dressing and orange juice at the same tables all day, that is a lot to ask of a surface.

A marble-look laminate or resin top is not calcium stone, so the acid question does not arise in the same way. Your staff can wipe it with the same cloth and the same routine as every other laminate or resin top in the room. That is the plain trade: you give up the stone, you keep the look, and you stop worrying about the lemon wedge.

The mistake that sends a top back inside

Picture the black marble resin top bought for the sidewalk. It looks right in the window, so an owner orders more for the two-tops out front. Its page says indoor use. Indoor furniture left outside falls outside the warranty, and the shop ends up with tops that belong back inside.

Check before you order. For a marble look out front, the light marble resin top is the one listed for patio use, and the granite is listed for both too. Every other top you put on the sidewalk should say Patio on its page as well, and the outdoor furniture section is the place to look for bases and chairs to go with it.

Seeing the pattern before it goes on the floor

A marble pattern on a screen is a guess. Ask for top material samples through our free samples page; the chips travel by UPS Ground, so allow 2 to 3 business days between our dispatch and your door. Set each chip on the counter beside your coffee cups, your plates and your till, under your own light, and look at it at closing time as well as at noon.

When you have the pattern, read our notes on cafe tabletops for how marble-look laminate and resin compare with the other materials, and see the wood bistro table if part of the room would suit warmer tops. The bistro tables hub covers sizes and heights. Then write the top, its material line and its base on one row of your list, and order the window tables and the sidewalk tables as separate lines, so each carries the right top.