This ongoing ethnographical study looks at the work in restaurant dining rooms in a particular type of restaurant segment that has been growing in recent years and differs from the traditional way of how leading high-end restaurants have been designed (e.g. Halawa & Parasecoli, 2019; Koponen & Niva, 2020; Pearlman, 2015). From a dining room perspective, these restaurants seem to maintain relaxed and informal service manners, guest interactions appear to be as friendships, yet the work practices are highly knowledge driven (Halawa & Parasecoli, 2019; Koponen & Niva, 2020). Overall, though well-planned and throughout, the dining room culture attempts to be perceived as impulsive, irregular and authentic (Halawa & Parasecoli, 2019) which put new topics on the agenda regarding hospitality and service (Blain & Lashley, 2014; Lashley, 2015; Lugosi, 2008). Because contemporary restaurants today rarely have a clear line between the kitchen and the dining room (Palmer et al., 2010; Pearlman, 2015), as in the case of gastropubs (Lane, 2018), the guests and workers come closer together through the blurring line between frontstage and backstage. This study elaborates on dramaturgical concepts of scene performance and representations of Self (Goffman, 1990/1959) to understand how these contemporary restaurant venues contributes with the dining room professionals’ representations of themselves through their work practices. As such, this study aims to investigate how dining room practices take shape in contemporary restaurants with regards to the restaurants’ conceptual framings and through the professionals’ representations of Self.