Revenge is finally at hand for anyone who has ever felt the icy disdain of a miffed maitre d` when he or she requested a table for one, then sat ignored by the kitchen door because the waitress was waiting for the rest of the party to arrive.
Suddenly, solo diners are discovering that restaurateurs want to cater to their every little whim. One major hotel chain even has a name for it: the individual dining concept.
Need a reading lamp? Got it right here. Want to talk to someone? Join our community table. Need elbow room? Here`s a table for four-just for one.
”What we are seeing is that more and more people are dining out alone,” says Anne Papa of the National Restaurant Association. ”And we`re seeing operators (of restaurants) responding by providing services conducive to the situation. A lot more is being done to cater to the single diner.”
Don`t think the $186-billion-a-year industry is doing this out of the goodness of its heart.
According to a 1987 restaurant operations report: ”The food service industry is in the midst of a major shift in direction brought about by changing consumer tastes and lifestyles as well as long-term demographic trends.”
At last count, a huge chunk of that demographic pie is the estimated 20 million people in the United States living alone.
TREND-SETTERS
”These singles are the trend-setters for the entire restaurant industry,” says David Barry of Laventhol & Horwath, an accounting firm that conducts restaurant market research. ”They are one of the single largest marketing segments for restaurateurs.”
They are such a large marketing segment that, for 40 restaurants in the Marriott hotel chain, catering to the single diner is company policy.
At some Marriott hotel restaurants, single diners have their own dining rooms-complete with a choice of newspapers, large tables with reading lamps, secretarial services and waiters trained to accommodate their needs.
The waiters also are paid a higher base salary than waiters serving multiple diners to help mitigate one hazard of serving one person at a four-seat table: lower tips.
”If you`re staying at a hotel by yourself, dining alone can be a lonely experience,” says Nick Hill of Marriott Hotels and Resorts. ”We`re finding that, in many instances, individual diners represent up to 30 percent of our dinner customers. And we`re responding to the needs and preferences of our guests.”
”Eating alone can be a challenge,” says advertising executive Kathy Piper, whose travels have taken her around the world-mostly solo-13 times.
”Who wants to sit behind four walls when you`re traveling all alone? You don`t want to put on your pajamas and call room service. You want to get all gussied up and go out and see people. I would rather go down to the dining room and enjoy myself.”
Marriott`s Hill says the program has been so successful that he expects the number of his chain`s restaurants providing the service to double next year.
A COUNTER ARGUMENT
Denver restaurateur Roby Robertson, who himself prefers bellying up to the bar instead of waiting for a table, encourages solo customers at his Strings restaurant to eat at the bar if they don`t want to dine alone.
”Single diners are more than welcome,” he says. ”We never had a problem with them. Our communal dining room table is the bar. I`m an old believer in the lunch counter. I would much prefer that.”
An extended, more scenic version of eating at the bar has come to be known as the ”social bar” in California. Neo in Glendale has social bars overlooking the dance floor.
Barry, the restaurant market researcher, says the social bar appeal may account for the resurgence in 1950s-style diners sweeping the country.
”The `50s diner, with counter and booth seating, is making a comeback,” he says. ”The singles typically prefer that instead of booths where they have to sit by themselves. At the counter they`re fairly close to people they can talk with.”
One variation on the single dining concept that`s catching on in East and West Coast eateries, however, has been available in Europe for centuries.
Known as ”community” tables, they usually accommodate 8 to 14 people who arrive alone but don`t want to eat alone.
When Sandro`s Italian restaurant opened in New York three years ago, a community table for 12 (called Sandro`s table) was part of the plan.
”There are a lot of single people who go out to dine,” says Sandro`s maitre d`, Giovanni Ferrotta. ”This way, they make friends and don`t have to dine by themselves.” –
