sobremesa

plural sobremesas

1. Time spent at the table after eating; the habit of relaxing at the table after a heavy meal.

   The figure presiding continues in this function during the sobremesa, that is, the time spent lingering and chatting after the meal. It's perhaps significant that in English there is no specific word for sobremesa.

   2013, Frederick L. Aldama, Ilan Stavans, ¡Muy Pop!: Conversations on Latino Popular Culture, University of Michigan Press, page 106

   2 more examples

   A lackadaisical attitude to time explains the sobremesa—the time after lunch when everyone has finished eating but no-one wants to get up and leave. Sitting around the table chatting and drinking coffee or brandy or patxarán^([sic]) (a sloe liqueur from the Basque country) is the solution.

   2010, Drew Launay, The Xenophobe's Guide to the Spanish, Oval Projects, →ISBN

   And then I’d realize I was still missing everything about what once made me love food: the people who create it and the “sobremesa” — the limitless chat after desserts, the reluctance to leave the table, the delight in shared experience.

   2020 December 31, Diego Salazar, “The Year of Not Eating Out”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2021