Being a single girl doesn’t mean I want to eat at home or via a drive-thru all the time. Sometimes, even when I’m date-less, I want to eat in a fancy restaurant. Even a not-so-fancy restaurant will do. Sometimes, I just want to sit at a table while someone cooks and brings me my meal while I relax and enjoy the experience of dining out.
But eating alone can be terrifying to some and humiliating to others. There seems to be a perception or stigma around solo diners. Many singles fear they’re being stared at, pitied, or even despised for taking up a perfectly good 2-top or 4-top just for themselves. Well, here’s the truth. They’re not. I promise, no one is looking, let alone wasting that much effort thinking about you. I don’t mean this harshly, but it’s true. People spend way too much time convinced that everyone is staring at them, when the reality is that most people are too absorbed in their own personal world to even notice anyone else in the room. If we knew how infrequently people actually thought about us, we’d stop caring about what it is they’re thinking.
In fact, we’re the growing majority. Here’s an article – with research and statistics, if you’re into that kind of thing – about how more than half of diners in the U.S. are dining solo.
Here’s the moral of the story: don’t let singlehood prevent you from having a nice meal at a full-on, sit-down, table-service restaurant. Here are a few articles with tips that I think are spot-on.
How to Eat Dinner by Yourself: A Beginner’s Guide
How to Eat Alone in a Restaurant
And here’s one for the single guys out there…
The Essential Guide to Dining Alone
Only one question remains. What’s for dinner?
