Time to cater for solo diners
Solo dining is on the rise and restaurants should make it as comfortable as possible for this growing market, says restaurateur Mike Egan.
But it looks like cellphones are taking care of the loneliness side of it. Egan is president of the Restaurant Association, and owns Monsoon Poon in Wellington, which was designed to appeal to solo diners.
‘‘We identified that market years ago when we built the restaurant,’’ Egan says. It has a specific area for them.
‘‘Single diners don’t like sitting at tables for two, they like sitting up at the bar or at a counter-type operation. They don’t want to be sort of sitting at a table looking as if their date hasn’t shown up.’’
It’s worked well. Egan says some nights Monsoon Poon will have up to a dozen single diners.
A British survey, the Waitrose Food and Drink Report 2017-18, has found 80 per cent of people believe eating alone is more socially acceptable than it was five years ago, and that a third of Brits have done just that in the last month.
The Waitrose report also pointed out that three quarters of people thought dining solo no longer made someone look sad and lonely.
Significantly the rise of mobile phones had a big influence, with a quarter of people surveyed admitting they saw a smart phone as a fair substitute for a human dinner table companion. It’s a figure that rises to 34 per cent among 18- to 24-year-olds, and falls to just 12 per cent of those over 55, with women being more likely to partner up with their mobiles than men.
Egan agreed that having a cellphone made it easier for people to dine alone. ‘‘If you have your phone, you can communicate with someone and you are not just sitting there staring at the wall. That’s definitely helped a lot to give people a bit of confidence to dine alone.’’
But he still believes the key lies in designing dining areas that are
"Single diners don't like sitting at tables for two, they like sitting up at the bar or at a counter-type operation... [not] sitting at a table looking as if their date hasn't shown up." Mike Egan
single friendly.
‘‘I’m always surprised a lot of new restaurants and bars don’t even have bar stools to sit up at the bar. When you travel in the States, the bar seats always fill up first because people like them. I think it should be an integral part of the design.’’
He says if a solo diner has to be placed at the tables then seating them around the edges is more comfortable for them than putting them alone out in the middle.
He agrees the old ‘‘Nigel nofriends’’ image is fading. ‘‘Yes, I think that’s totally going. People are out and busy and they need to eat.’’