Restaurant Reservations Rise for Parties of Three: Me, Myself and I
by Siti Zawani
@ 06 Nov 2015
OpenTable, the popular site for online reservations, recently announced that over the past two years, reservations for parties of one have grown by 62 percent in the U.S., making it the fastest-growing table party size. The trend mirrors a wider cultural shift, with the number of single-person households rising as never before.
Caroline Potter, a consultant for OpenTable, also credits discerning diners who want to eat at top restaurants regardless of whether they have companions. The issue is global — with some novel solutions.
Eenmaal, which opened last year in Amsterdam, calls itself the world’s first restaurant that offers only tables for one. The everyone-is-alone concept is so successful that Eenmaal — Dutch for “once” — plans to expand. There also are websites such as the women-only InviteForABite.com, where a woman posts an invitation noting when and where she plans on dining, and asks if any other woman wants to join her. Then there’s Japan’s Moomin Café, which offers solo patrons large, stuffed Moomin dolls as companions. What’s a Moomin? It’s a hippopotamus-like creature from a Finnish animated series that is wildly popular in Japan. Read all the details here:
http://goo.gl/cdZ8Hi
