On 8/17/2014 4:01 AM, Alan Holbrook wrote:
> For me, when I was a road warrior, it was never a question about feeling
> uncomfortable dining alone. It was more an issue with restaurants
> _making_ me feel uncomfortable. The single diner takes up a table that
> would generate more revenue if two, three, or four people were seated at
> it. So a lot of restaurants try to hustle the single diner through a
> meal by bringing out all the courses within a couple of minutes of each
> other and stacking plates on the table. Then while you're still working
> through the salad that's there at the same time the entree is there and
> getting cold, they bring you the bill and slap it down. A couple of
> times, I've asked for the manager and gently asked if this is the
> restaurant's policy to treat singles that way, and suddenly, the pace
> slows to something more enjoyable.

I don't think I've encountered that. I did have a hostess try to group
me in with a couple in line ahead of me. She could believe a party of
three people, but not someone dining alone. Seat me at a deuce, not a
four-top. I was on my lunch break, it's not as if I was going to be
sitting there all afternoon depriving them of tons of money.

Jill