Dining out solo

Food Twitter was ablaze at the tail end of last week following the news that a high-end London restaurant was charging solo diners double to compensate for having fewer covers. In fact, the trade press covered the story of Alex Dilling and his £330 minimum spend for those eating alone at Hotel Cafe Royal, to cover the cost of an empty seat, quite straight. It was the consumer press which got pretty exercised about it all and with very grabby headlines.

It’s now become a story about the rise of dining out solo – the reason for Dilling’s decision is because demand for tables for one has soared. And at the time of writing it’s still going strong, with writers exploring their own takes on the trend.

What’s in it for the canny PR? Plenty. Anywhere with a counter is at an advantage here, because pushing that style of dining out is an easy win given the ease with which a single guest can squeeze in. Ditto places that are all about sharing plates – you can spin those plates as ‘Dining alone? Now you don’t have to share your favourites’, and so on.

And, in my non-scientific research, someone eating by themselves is pretty likely to buy a really good glass of wine, or two, which helps with the bottom line. 

On the other hand, if your client is a high-end chef willing to stick their neck out and support Dilling and really explain the realities of what goes into a Michelin-worthy experience, that’s almost guaranteed to generate huge amounts of interest too…