being very much a front-and-centre kind of a person , he had chosen to dine at the kendrick table named after arthur kendrick sr , a transatlantic resident ( now deceased ) which lay in the middle of the room facing the main entrance , and one which might easily have played host to a floral display in the front hall of a country house , or indeed dignified an open coffin at a wake had it not been seconded into the dining business some years before .