Richard Flack wrote: “I have not dined alone in high end restaurants so can’t relate.”
Thread drift, but OK: I have dined alone in high end restaurants, mostly work-related (make a sales call late afternoon, stay for dinner). Kinda the same feeling as opening great wine alone. Sure, but I’d rather do it in company.
I made my first trip to France in a long time at the end of May. Alone in Burgundy on a Saturday night, I could get a seat at Lameloise, one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. I really wanted to eat at their bistro across the square, but it was closed (go figure). So boof boorgwinyon at my bare-bones hotel on the outskirts of Chagny, accompanied by a glass of fizz, then a half bottle of Mercurey. Very good and well worth the 10% of what Lameloise would have cost.
I am actively looking to buy more half bottles, including the Good Stuff. I’ll feel a lot better about opening great wine alone if I can consume the whole thing as part of a reasonable evening of food and wine. Part of my reluctance is having something at peak only half-drunk, not wanting it to go to waste, not wanting to refrigerate it. I know I should break out my Coravin more often, but I don’t like the rigamarole and the extra aeration.
Agreed. I’m often frustrated at some places when trying to book them, only to find their reservation system only lets you book reservations for 2+ people.
Lots when I’m on the road but usually at places that have a bar. Sitting at a table alone at a higher end restaurant is a little weird to me. High end places also tend to have good bartenders who are rarely in the weeds and sometimes bored, and they or the somm will often hook you up with side pours of great wines from the list or a table that didn’t finish their bottle.
I have eaten by myself regularly while traveling, both while single and after getting hitched. I love eating at bars. I have many very funny stories of bartenders repeatedly directing me to the page of wines by the glass when they saw me perusing the bottle list. Ahem.
I usually use the opportunity to drink something my wife doesn’t like, for example Riesling or aged whites. Sometimes I open interesting bottles I’m worried might be flawed (Brett or otherwise).
It’s a bit like movies, just that during dinner conversations should be there.
In that sense I fully agree and happily pop any bottles alone. Also the best way (for me) to understand a wine. What I sometimes do is open more bottles (than would be consumed), move on to the next bottle in order to save some of the wine to taste more quietly durning the following days.
I rarely have any issue with a bottle going bad after 2-4 days, in fact for most wines that’s part of my quality check. Says a lot about the wine and very interesting to follow the development and how the wine evolves.
Most of my enjoyable wine experiences in the recent past have been drinking alone. With a 2 year-old boy in the house, I haven’t found the time (or quiet) to contemplate a wine during dinner. On the rare occasions that I’m alone at home for the night, I can use coravin to have focused comparisons of a few wines. Or I can simply throw on a movie, grill up some steak or buy a pizza, and enjoy a simpler wine without analyzing it much.
As for dining out solo, like some of the others here, I prefer eating at the bar.
I love sharing wines with good friends and families, it is just one more reason to pop great stuff., My wife does not often drink red wines - just a few Zins here and there - so I normally drink reds by myself if not out or with friends. I pull bottles very spontaneously, and try not to intellectualize what X cost or how few of Y that I have left. Just a few days ago I pulled a 1998 Magdelaine to drink solo. Why not? I enjoyed every second of that decision, and in truth, following a bottle solo for a night or two, without any distractions, is a great way to truly understand and appreciate that bottle. Opened a 2001 Sociando Mallet last night.
I agree 100%. Especially with something like a movie or concert you are passionate about, where another person may not actually enjoy it at all, distracting from your own enjoyment…or where the person may want to “chat” rather than watch/listen, may not want to arrive on time or sit/stand in the same location, etc. To me, concerts and movies in particular are “social” events only to the extent that there is something enjoyable about sharing an experience with an auditorium full of people, but are NOT social events in the sense of being able to interact one-on-one with a group of friends while also truly focusing on the experience. Even with meals and food, while “all else being equal” I would usually rather share the experience, I sometimes have amazing experiences alone that exceed expectations, and at other times, what begins as a “solo experience” (i.e. sitting at a bar or table alone for a meal) winds up as a social occasion sharing conversation and even bottles of wine with a group of previously-unknown people. Similarly, I have sometimes had amazing dinner-and-wine experiences cooking for myself and dining alone, listening to the music I want to hear, eating exactly what I want to eat and drinking what I want to drink, without any concern for the preferences of others.
When I am away from home, a solo wine/dining experience can really be a tonic. This being the internet, that doesn’t mean I only want solo wining and dining. Every once in a while is fine.
Sitting at a nice bar, or elegant bar, and staring into the bottle racks while quaffing a glass of wine and snacking from the menu can be pretty sublime. Just me and my thoughts…I don’t even have to try to be good company.
Solo dining here in the states for me is fine as long as I’m sitting at the bar or in the lounge. At a now shuttered French restaurant in San Francisco with a celebrity chef I was seated at a tiny table they had slapped down in the hallway for me. On the other hand in France I’ve had amazing experiences eating by myself in Michelin stared restaurants.
I disagree as well, though maybe not the adventure part. Especially on a work trip, when there’s very little peace and calm, dining alone is an oasis, a time to quiet my mind and simply enjoy some simple pleasure. I find meetings and crowds much more lonely. But then, I have come to value my own company.
Everyone has their own individual sensibilities when it comes to dining alone. There’s no one right answer, just what you and joy and are comfortable with.
For example, when dining alone, I love sitting at the bar, my father in the meanwhile despises it and much prefers dining solo at a regular table if possible.
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