Catering for single diners

BBC News - Tables for one - the rise of solo dining:

"Not too long ago solo dining was synonymous with a greasy takeaway scoffed down in the car, or room service consumed in the sterile anonymity of your hotel room. This was preferable to the thought of dining alone in a proper restaurant, and the associated stigma of being seen as a "friendless loser".

Some of that sense of unease surrounding booking a table for one no doubt dates back to our childhoods, when sitting alone in the high school cafeteria was tantamount to social suicide. Yet today, a growing number of us live alone - including one out of every seven adults in the US - so the stigma surrounding solo dining has started to dissipate, says Aaron Allen, a Florida-based global restaurant consultant.

With more and more people choosing to dine out alone, Mr Allen says savvy restaurants around the world are trying to make themselves more welcoming to solo diners, for example by fitting more bar seating, or encouraging waiting staff to be more attentive to customers sitting on their own." ...

At the San Diego restaurant Top of the Market, executive chef Ivan Flowers was brought in last year to make some changes, with one main aim being to increase the number of people dining alone.

He felt that while the eatery already had bar seating in front of the open kitchen, it was underutilised because the chefs weren't interacting enough with the customers.

Mr Flowers says solo diners sitting by the kitchen now get "to see a show", which includes cooking demos, free tastings and conversations with the chefs.

"If you catch our eye, we'll ask, 'Would you like to try that?'

'via Blog this'