Select Media Mentions
To read the most recent media mentions, click: more
"Want to get the most out of your solo dining experience? We [CookingLight] asked Marya Charles Alexander,
creator of SoloDining.com, to give us her best advice."
We did — with pleasure!
Dining Alone: How to dine solo-style — CookingLight
(Note: This piece reappears yearly.)
"Even restaurants are finding ways to woo the growing number of singles who eat out. Marya Charles Alexander
of Carlsbad, Calif., publishes an online newsletter, SoloDining.com, with a dual purpose. It urges restaurants
to make solo diners feel welcome — no fair banishing them to Siberia, next to the swinging kitchen door. And it
encourages customers eating alone to find pleasure in the experience."
The power of 1 — The Christian Science Monitor
" 'There are now communal tables of every stripe, from picnic tables on down,' says Marya Charles Alexander,
who, for several years, has made a hobby as well as a business out of tracking solo dining trends."
Away on Business: A table for one? — Reuters.
Appearing on Yahoo.com — Finance — Travel
AND on CNN.com/World — International
AND in the New York Daily News
"Dining alone doesn't mean you have to feel alone. Excellent sources for info include the newsletter SoloDining.com
(800-299-1079, www.solodining.com), which shares tips, restaurant reviews and news."
Love It! A Fine Meal, Good Eavesdropping and No Sharing — AND — Hate It! No Friends, No Date And Too
Many People Noticing — Washington Post
SoloDining.com is delighted to be a part of the Washington Post's dueling duo of solo dining experiences
which exemplify several of the pleasures and pitfalls of dining out alone.
(We're pleased The Hartford Courant included SoloDining.com in their version of the Washington Post
piece, as did The Cleveland Ohio Plain Dealer
"One web site aims to help people cope with DDS — the dread of dining solo. From handy tips on how to act
when dining alone to a directory of solo-friendly restaurants in the United States."
MochaSofa: Women Connecting for Solutions
We thank the publishers of Canadian Living, HMhomemakers, Style at HOME, ELLE Canada for making SoloDining.com
an "Editor's Pick"!
"Spooked by the idea of a table for one? Fear not, says Marya Charles Alexander, editor and publisher of SoloDining.com,
which celebrates the joy of having dessert all to yourself."
"Travel Talk" — Via (The travel magazine distributed to 4.6 million AAA members in Northern
California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Idaho.) — November-December 2002.
To read the entire piece, please click: here
"A website exists for those of us who would rather risk the shame of a table for one than settle for room
service. SoloDining.com, published and editored by Marya Charles Alexander, offers helpful hints on how to dine
alone with grace, dignity, and confidence."
"Table for One: Dining alone doesn't have to be a lonely experience." Robb Report - for The Luxury
Lifestyle
"Take the bite out of eating alone by visiting SoloDining.com. The site ranks how friendly various restaurants
are across the country to 'one tops.' It offers obvious tips like 'bring a book' as well as advanced strategies
like how to get a decent table . . ."
Delta Airlines' Sky in-flight magazine
"Everything is changing," says Marya Charles Alexander of Southern California, editor/publisher of the
website/newsletter, SoloDining.com. "Solo diners are stepping forward. There are a lot of hungry solo diners
out there."
"Solitary Refinement — Solo Diners No Longer Shunned" (Arizona Living) The Arizona Republic
"I have since discovered http://www.solodining.com, a terrific website aimed at helping restaurants and their
patrons acquire a taste for this radical idea [communal table dining]."
"Dining Solo with Strangers — After saying I'd sit at the restaurant's communal table,
was I going to regret declining the hazard-free pleasures of my own private table?" The
Globe and Mail
Terrific (and educational!) expose of communal table dining!
"BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT: You know Marya Charles Alexander, the woman behind the innovative SoloDining.com. A trusted
resource for years, she's announcing the arrival of SoloTravelPortal.com, originally the "solo travel section"
of SoloDining.com. Now, fully grown, it has its own Web site.
SoloTravelPortal.com is one of the most useful travel resources for single people, whether as business travelers,
people traveling without their mates or unmarrieds. Check it out." Newsday
"Restaurants are bracing for tomorrow night's onslaught of canoodling couples. 'Two' is the only acceptable
number around V-Day. But what about the party of one?" — so began New York Daily News restaurant
critic Pascale Le Draoulec. Her column, "Chez Pascale," detailed her observations (excellent for solodiners!)and
the results of her conversation with Marya about solodiners.
Thanks to Los Angeles Times Magazine for publishing Marya's letter to the editor (Her tip: Make a
reservation!)
We received e-mails in response. Here's a sample:
"I was interested to read your letter in today's Times about reserving before you dine solo. This,
as it happens, is something I stopped doing around 36 years ago.
I was stuck in New York, alone for Thanksgiving. I reserved for one at the old Luchow's. I got there on time,
claimed my reservation, only to see the captain turn to the headwaiter and growl: 'I thought we didn't take solo
reservations on holidays any more.' Last solo reservation I ever made.
P.S. The food, wine and service were — thereafter — fine.
Thanks to Michael Conlon for quoting Marya in "Travel Business Goes Through Changes," his "Away
on Business" column for Reuters News Service.
"Rather than looking at a diner as a solo table who is going to take up expensive real estate, restaurants
should look at them as an important market that is very hungry and waiting for an invitation," Marya Charles
Alexander said.
"Making sure solo diners get their just desserts"
(In Depth: Business Meetings & Travel)
Business First-Buffalo
— Western New York's Business Newspaper
"Solo diners comprise a tremendous market and opportunity," says Marya Charles
Alexander, publisher, SoloDining.com. "They are intensely loyal to restaurants that are sensitive to their
needs and put them at ease."
American Express' Briefing
(Tips and Trends Exclusively for American Express Restaurant Merchants) — September/October 2001 — featured Marya's
quotes and several selections from her "A SoloDiner's Wishlist."
To read the entire list, click wishlist.
Our thanks to Kathleen Doheny, the Healthy Traveler columnist, for including SoloDining.com
in "When Going Alone Is A Tonic," which appeared in the Los Angeles
Times.
" 'I've learned that one of the nicest things a woman can do for herself is to
treat herself to a good meal without feeling she has to be asked by a man or to wait for a friend,' says Marya
Charles Alexander."
Our thanks to Mary Beth Sammons for featuring Marya in her Smart
Talk column, "Making 'Table for One' An Appetizing Experience," that appeared
in the Chicago Tribune.
Devotees of Larry Mantle's Airtalk — KPCC-FM (89.3), National
Public Radio — heard Marya Charles Alexander discuss solo dining with Terri Anzur
(Associate Professor of Communications at the University of Southern California and former Channel 5 News Anchor)
and call-ins throughout the southland.
An online poll accompanied the
website version of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
staff-writer Kathy Flanigan's article, "Flying Solo, Going It Alone and Doing
It in Style." Here are the questions posed and the responses:
Do you dine out alone?
Yes (64.6%)
No (35.4%)
Total votes: 260
Our thanks to the Journal Sentinel for featuring Marya's
solo dining tips.
Do you listen to CBS News Radio?
If so, you may have caught Philadelphia KYW Newsradio's Mark Drucker's special take on solo dining.
"Solo Diners, take note: More than 10 years ago, Marya Charles Alexander tried
dining out alone. 'My first foray was not a success, so I decided to teach myself,' she says." Meridian - Midway Airlines
Feature piece, "Table for One Catches On at Restaurants,"was initially published
in the Baltimore Sun. (with
subsequent appearances in the Chicago Tribune,
Orlando Sentinel, Arizona Republic, Newsday, Houston Chronicle, Palm Beach Post,
Providence Journal, Sun Sentinel, Stamford Advocate, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Hartford
Courant, Black Voices.com,
etc.)
Our thanks to Paul Grimes for including us in his Online
Traveler column, "Restaurant Reviews, Reservations Offered Online," that
appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
SoloDining.com was included among "Web Sites of Special Interest to Female Travelers" in Working Woman magazine.
Who hasn't enjoyed/endured the singular experience of dining out alone? It can be a peaceful respite. Or
it can be a maddening disaster. The site, www.solodining.com, is dedicated to all those times.
You'll find picks for the best solo-dining-friendly restaurants around the country, as well as horror stories
about real-life dining calamities and how the restaurants responded. — San Jose Mercury News
Marya Charles Alexander, who has made a career of tracking down "solo-friendly" dining establishments,
reports that such restaurants are increasing both in number and in geographic distribution in North America. —
Reuters
"Fear of dining solo has little to do with how successful or how smart you are," says Alexander. It even
afflicts the most famous. Alexander reports that Oprah Winfrey said on one of her shows that she never eats in
restaurants alone. Not because she doesn't want to be intruded on — but because she just doesn't feel comfortable
doing it. — Washington Post
One reward for eating alone? Alexander says no one cares if you eat two desserts! — American Way
Why is a table for one more fun? Dining solo is great for the soul and should be seen as an indulgence, according
to newsletter editor Marya Charles Alexander. — Cosmopolitan (British Edition)
Through her newsletter and public appearances, Alexander gives business travelers tips for dining out on their
own and finding restaurants that are receptive to solos. — Entrepreneur Magazine
"Don't be afraid to give social dining a try," Alexander says. "At some of the high-end restaurants
you may find yourself cheek-to-jowl with someone in a complementary business — someone who might make an ideal
business partner or customer." — Industry Week Magazine
"Sometimes travelers simply need to speak to restaurant or hotel managers to create their own comfort zone,"
says Marya Charles Alexander, who publishes a newsletter, SoloDining.com. "If you don't like the table
offered, nicely state what you really would prefer," she says. "Add, I know you want me to have an
enjoyable meal." — USA Today
Alexander's newsletter is a noisy smorgasbord of information: quips from seasoned solo diners like Brooke Shields,
rundowns of solo-friendly restaurants nationwide and beyond, solo safety tips, bar scene/counter dining updates.
It helps in breaking with tradition and learning to break bread and be fed — literally and figuratively — in different
ways. — Los Angeles Times
Alexander has embraced a small segment of the disenfranchised-people who eat alone in restaurants, and brought
to their plight a level of passion and inspiration not seen since the paintings of Edward Hopper." — Sun
Sentinel
"Most women don't relish the idea of dining without a companion — let alone going out for a drink by themselves.
Happily, some restaurants now have group tables set aside for business travelers," says Marya Charles Alexander.
— Working Mother Magazine
Going out to a hot restaurant without a companion? Remember to take something to read! That's the advice to women
from SoloDining.com — the newsletter that takes the bite out of eating alone. — Essence Magazine
"Communal tables have become so popular that everyone wants to sit at one," Alexander says; "couples
as well as solos." — AARP's Modern Maturity
"Many kitchens have chef's tables. Why not set aside an evening for solos?" Alexander suggests. — Restaurants
& Institutions
"If you've never treated yourself to dinner alone at a restaurant, you may have a touch of DDS — Dread
of Dining Solo," says Marya Charles Alexander, founder of the SoloDining.com newsletter. — Glamour
Magazine
AHHGGGGG! If you have ever traveled on business, you've probably faced the uncomfortable prospect of dining alone.
Should you bury yourself in a book while you eat? SoloDining.com has the answer and more. — Chattanooga
Free Press
To read the most recent media mentions, click: more
For More Information . . .
- Write: SoloDining.com; P.O. Box 2664; Carlsbad, CA 2018.
- Call toll-free: 1-800-299-1079; or call: 1-760-720-1011.
- Fax: 1-760-720-1049.
- E-mail: editor@solodining.com
If you have questions or comments about this Web page or site, e-mail: webmaster@SoloDining.com.
© 2008 SoloDining.com
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