Party of one: Restaurants are catering to growing number of solo diners

Nice.

I often eat and alone when out conducting business around the country, never thought anything about it, lol

Yeah, well, I go out with a couple of friends about once a week. The rest of the time I "cook" my own. (You would not like it, I assure you.) I don't like being alone in a place where people are having a good time. With friends, yeah. Alone, though, I've never liked it in my adult life.

I have been solo dining for decades.

I remember in the early days, they would give you a table by the toilets or some crying children or a cold breeze blowing.

It used to come to a point that I would go and sit on a table of my choice.

It has changed over time and some restaurants treat you with equal dignity and decent seating.

I used to almost always eat out at restaurants with friends in the US but when I came to Japan, I originally found myself alone quite a bit and found many restaurants, coffee shops and dessert shops with counters and tiny tables perfect for one person, so I picked up this habit.

I never really knew this was less common before Covid. I've watched countless old movies and have seen many people in person eating solo as long as I can remember.