Extension Fork: The Moocher’s Best Friend

You order the swordfish. Your companion falls for the fettuccine Alfredo.

If you can’t resist reaching over for a bite, at least do it with a little class.

The X-Tenda Fork, brainchild of inventor/entrepreneur Alan Lowenfels, telescopes from a discreet 8 1/2 inches to a truly rude 24 - long enough to pilfer from every plate on the table.

In a previous life, Lowenfels was president of Hotel Bar Butter, a New York-based family-run company that sold extra-rich European-style butter to upscale restaurants and markets.

A couple of years ago, he cobbled together a sawed-off fork and a collapsible pocket pointer and started using it as an attention-getter at restaurants and culinary gatherings.

The response, he says, was universal: “Where did you get that? Where can I get one?”

Now, he says, he’s stepped off the corporate merry-go-round and gone into flatware full time, with a basement brimming with Hong Kong-produced extendable forks, ready to reach for $10 each.

He has applied for a patent, taken out a toll-free number (1-800-557-1445) and is about to hit the airwaves with a commercial on a national cable food network.

Word of the utensil is getting around.

White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier heard about it and ordered two for the Clintons for Christmas.

Tim Zagat, publisher of Zagat restaurant guides, presented one at a dinner party to former New York Mayor David Dinkins, who, Zagat says, “immediately started eating off his wife’s plate.”