The commission
A restaurant bench sees a different load profile than a residential one — people sit down hard, slide sideways to make room, and stand up by pushing off the seat edge. The stretcher base uses through-tenons wedged from the outside face, a joint that only gets tighter under lateral racking load rather than working loose the way a blind mortise-and-tenon can over years of exactly this kind of abuse.
Finished to match the Cortland Communal Table for the same dining room, in the same catalyzed conversion varnish.