It’s 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon, past the lunch rush. The restaurant is fairly empty. I arrive alone, with a newspaper or laptop. Despite there being many empty tables in the place, and no likelihood that they’ll be filling up soon, the host or hostess directs me to the smallest table or booth, often next to the kitchen or bathroom.
WTF? When there’s 20 empty tables, and no rush of customers is expected, why do restaurants still try to seat single customers at the worst take in the house?
Could be that it’s the easiest table to keep an eye on while the servers are busy cleaning and getting ready for the dinner rush.
It may be that the hostess figures that a customer who walks in alone with a newspaper probably doesn’t want to be out in the middle of the room but rather in a somewhat secluded, well-lit perhaps, area.
Also, my training at the first restaurant I worked in was to seat singles at smaller, out-of-the-way tables/booths so as not to “make them feel weird” about being alone. For instance, I shouldn’t seat a single next to a group of six or a family with kids. I also shouldn’t seat a single at a table meant for four or more people.
I never understood why we should presume that someone dining alone is insecure about it. I mean, here they are, dining alone, after all.
Alone or not, if I am directed to a table I don’t want I ask for another one. As long as there is one, I’ve never been turned down.
I work in a restaurant (as a cook though) but i can probably give a pretty good guess as to a reason.
There is a larger party that is scheduled to arrive a little later on.
They have no idea how long you plan on staying. Potentially you could justsit and read the newspaper until 7pm.
Any local events going on? Sometimes if there was a baseball game ending in the early afternoon our lunch rush might start at 2 or 3.
This is a big one. I wait tables, and it’s very frustrating when a one or two-top comes in when it’s slow, but then stays for-fucking-ever into the dinner rush and costs me money.
Do most of them do that? No, but when the occasional one does, I’d rather have my two-person booth be out of commission than my four person booth, or six-person table.
Plus, even though it’s slow and is likely to stay that way until 5 or 6, there’s no guarantee. I’ve worked many weekday shifts that, out of nowhere, got busy again between 2 and 3. Maybe a tour bus shows up, or (in a couple instances,) another restaurant or two is closed. One time, every other restaurant in our area of town lost power because of a storm, but we didn’t, so we were slammed at 2:30 with only two servers and a bartender.
Also partly just force of habit. The restaurant could get an unexpected rush at any time of the day really, so why not give a single diner a smaller table? If you want a different table, just ask for one, I’m sure they’d oblige.
Are you particularly ugly or malodorous?
Interesting. My experience is the complete opposite. I’m usually seated away from the kitchen, at a window seat. I’ve always assumed that this is to give the impression to passers-by that the café/restaurant has some customers.
Or vacuous or coffee-nosed?
Anyone want to bet that Cunctator is more attractive than elmwood?
Pssst: I don’t care what some sloppy transcripts say, it’s toffee-nosed (see 0:57). Here’s why.
Or a pervert, even.
I have come to believe there is no rhyme or reason, each restaurant has its own philosophy. They either have a rule about what they want to do with single diners, or an opinion about what ALL single diners want. I don’t want “the worst seat in the house” but then again I don’t want to be put on display at a table in the middle of the fuckin’ room, either. I do prefer being tucked against a wall or window, not because I sigh “feel bad” about eating alone, but just because I don’t care to be the center of attention. I agree with the post upstream, I have just learned to ask for what I want if they lead me to a table I don’t like. I never have been turned down.
What DOES burn me up is reservations at nice-ish restaurants for one person. I used to travel a bit for business, and when in another city liked to try to sample one or two good restaurants. Not white-tablecloth-and-bone-china places, but mid- to higher-end. Invariably I’d call well ahead for a reservation, to be told that there was nothing available between 5:30 and, say, 9:00. I’d go ahead and make the loser reservation at 5:30, only to arrive and eat dinner in a restaurant that was never more than half full the whole time I was there. Not every restaurant treated me so, but the majority did.
Note to hostesses: If I walk into your fairly dim restaurant for lunch carrying a book, newspaper, or magazine, chances are I’m going to be READING. Instead of taking me to the cozy dark corner, why not take me to one of the empty tables next to the window? Or at least to a table that has at least a suggestion of light? Hmmm?
P.S. Oh yes, and of course it’s toffee-nosed
I look at this as a problem of marginal utility. When a restaurant is almost full - or almost empty - it doesn’t benefit the house or the server much to give extra good service to the individual party of 1, 2, or 3, because they’re unlikely to order or tip enough to matter in the day’s receipts.
I understand the OP asked about seating and not service in general, but I think the approach applies either way. At peak or trough times, you just aren’t that important.
Ah, if only I could claim such pulchritude. But seating people (singles, couples, whatever) at the window in empty restaurants is standard practice all over the country, from what I’ve seen.
Don’t sell yourself short, kid. Have you seen elmwood?
Just kidding, elmwood!
That was one of my biggest pet peeves when I was a waitress… people who sit and sit and sit… they don’t realize that you could have turned that table twice in the time they were there and made double the profits. Whenever I “squat” as a customer, I always double the tip to make up for it. It’s not the waitress’s fault that I wanna chit chat for a while, why should her pocket book suffer?
Shut yer festering gob, ya tit!
Ok, ok… toffee-nosed. I get it. I think. 
This used to be one of my major annoyances when I traveled (alone) for my job. As a female, eating alone in a restaurant isn’t always a pleasant experience, but I coped. Usually had a book or magazine with me.
However, after about the 10th episode of getting the worst, darkest, stinkiest near-the-bathroom tables, I became creative, and now I can recommend some alternatives.
The easiest is the fast food drive-thru, eat in your hotel room. But that can get old real fast. There’s room service, if you have the expense acccount for it. I’ve ordered pizza and had it delivered to the hotel. The best solution in a couple of the smaller cities I needed to visit was to find the nearest big supermarket with a deli. I would get a salad from the salad bar and whatever else looked good, take it back to my hotel room and dine in a relaxed atmosphere. No tipping necessary (except for the pizza delivery person), nobody trying to hurry my butt out of there, no heavy sighs from the waitstaff. Easy.
The last few times I have gone into restaurants by myself, the hostess has tried to sit me in the bar. I drink very rarely and do not care to eat in bars. I asked for window seats both times and that is where I was seated.
This phenomenon doesn’t necessarily just apply to people dining alone.
Mrs. J. and I frequently when eating out in half-full restaurants get initially directed to small tables or those in undesirable locations (near the kitchen, bathroom or in the bar area) when there are booths available with room enough to stretch out.
We figure it’s a restaurant version of the Food Lion supermarket policy: Sell the bad stuff first. Maybe the host(ess)/serv(ettes) figure that they’ll get bigger tips by putting larger parties in the more optimal seating.
We ask for and get the better spots.