'Somehow I have never minded dining alone. Instead, I find it is a rare opportunity for relaxing and collecting my senses, and I have always made each occasion something of a ceremony.' -James Beard
is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves cooking for himself—and only himself—and seeks to celebrate the beauty of solitude in its many forms.I.e. me, when I walk in alone and gesture to the host with my index finger,"One."
In a bad restaurant, the host may direct me to the bar, or if I do get a table , the waiter will ignore me for most of the night to cater to higher-value parties. Maybe there's a passive-aggressive eye roll when I say no to appetizers and dessert, an itching sense that I'm a waste of the restaurant's time and space because I'm taking up a whole table, just for me.
Maybe this is why I tend to overtip when it's just me, because I don't want that waiter to ever underestimate the next solo diner's tab. As if my tipping well will teach them to continue treating loners as well as they treat eight-person tables. My friend Irene and I were discussing this the other night, when a bartender at Restaurant Bat us when we said we had already eaten and were just there for wine, not dinner.
I always wonder what happens to this last-minute table for one after I leave the restaurant.
Somehow I have never minded dining alone. Instead, I find it is a rare opportunity for relaxing and collecting my senses, and I have always made each occasion something of a ceremony.Wherever I am, there's one dish I like to order on these nights when I'm crawling to an Italian restaurant, in search of water and wine and starchy sustenance:I do my best to feign humility when I ask, though:"I know it's not on the menu, but...
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