Hot Tip For Restaurateurs

NEW! Updated, Enhanced and Totally Revised — 150-Plus Tips on How to Attract & Keep Solo Diners Update on Solo Dining in Australia Solo/Single Eating/Dining Market Considered Successful Marketing of Communal Table Dining in The U.K. and Australia Washington, D.C. Widower Shares Observations and Insightful Solo Dining Tips TheRestaurantGame, U.K.-based Website Catering to The Restaurant Industry, Offers Its Take on Communal Dining Hot Tip for Restaurateurs Who Want to Cultivate the Solo Diner Market "Communal Table Coaching" EATiQuette's The Main Course on Table Service A Solo Diner's Wish List Sooner or later, EVERYONE — business and pleasure travelers, singles, those divorced or widowed, very-marrieds whose spouses are on the road, harried moms and dads, etc. — faces the challenge of eating out alone! THE How-to Booklet of Solo Dining Tips & Strategies: The Art and Satisfaction of Dining Alone — REVEALED! is now available for purchase in PDF format! List of Restaurants offering counter/dining bars — SoloDiners' EAT OUT Week "2007" List of Restaurants offering communal table dining — Solo Diners' EAT OUT Week "2006" Solo Friendly-Restaurant Contest 2001 results — DETAILED!!! To discover what solo diners want/prefer in restaurants, click: Results. Your customers speak out! Click: READ Return to Top Hot Tip for Restaurateurs Planning to offer a communal table? Here are some important considerations: * Location * Naming the table * Availability (meals: breakfast? lunch? dinner?) (every day?) * Food service (entire menu? prix fixe?) * Seating availability (reservation only/customer-driven?) * Target market (business travelers/couples/singles/people without mates who are on the road?) * Customer incentives to try table * Table launch/Ongoing marketing Did you catch the Holiday 2003 issue of Santé? Mark Carter, proprietor of Restaurant 301 at the Carter House in Eureka, California (featured in a 1997 issue of SoloDining.com, the newsletter), offered several answers to the question, "What's The Best Way to Boost Check Averages?" in the Holiday 2003 issue of Santé. Here's one of the best: (As you check it out — knowing what a draw wine-tasting classes are for solos — imagine how easy it would be to encourage and facilitate communal table dining at the conclusion of a wine-tasting class in your restaurant.) "To help educate [customers] about our wines, we host a wine-tasting class on Saturdays. We end the class at dinner time to encourage participants to stay for dinner and order a bottle of wine that they have just tasted. During the wine tasting, be sure to have your dinner menu available; refer to it and suggest pairings with courses on the menu." Return to Top EATiQuette — David Rothchild now offers an "Instructor's Manual," an accompaniment to: The Main Course on Table Service David Rothschild uses his own experiences during his decades in the business to help beginning servers learn the proper techniques while getting a taste of what it's like to be a part of the restaurant industry. His entertaining anecdotes also give experienced servers tips and hints on becoming more efficient and polished in their craft. Note: The Main Course on Table Service is now available in Print, CD and E-Book Formats. Return to Top How does proprietor Ina Pinkney (Ina's — Chicago, IL) respond to a lone diner's, "Only one"? "Every ONE adds to my bottom-line," she stated with a grin. Are you ready to enjoy bottom-line benefits from catering to the huge, multi-faceted solo diner market? Ina knows how to show her appreciation for solo diners' business — and how to attract it! Do you? Updated, enhanced and totally revised — the NEW edition of 150-Plus Tips on How to Attract & Keep Solo Diners is underway — availability scheduled for October 2008. Interested? Provide us with your e-mail address. You'll be among the very first to receive notice of its availability. To contact us click: 150-Plus Tips 150-Plus Tips on How to Attract & Keep Solo Diners (Pod Press; 1996) — No longer in print. If you have questions or comments about this Web page or site, e-mail: webmaster@SoloDining.com. © 2008 SoloDining.com Return to Top