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If I'm not taking a laptop, my favorite "eat alone" option is a sushi bar -- especially if it's a smaller sushi bar or a lower activity period, you can interact
by rdl 13y ago
If I'm not taking a laptop, my favorite "eat alone" option is a sushi bar -- especially if it's a smaller sushi bar or a lower activity period, you can interact with your chef.
(Probably the best sushi bar meal I've had was when I had an 0600 flight out of SIN, and was saying at the old Changi Le Meridien; stayed up until 0100 at the sushi bar, split several bottles of soju with the chef, and had about SGD 400 in sushi and alcohol for what they billed as SGD 80. Omakase + alcohol = wonderful thing.)
I wonder if there are other cuisines (perhaps yet to be invented) which would work the same way. The market for dining alone is growing. The teppanyaki/benihana experience sort of works, but not so great alone.
- beachstartup 13y ago> I wonder if there are other cuisines (perhaps yet to be invented) which would work the same way going to a regular bar / gastropub works exactly the same way. * it's a bar * you can be there alone or with people * you interact with the bartender * he makes food and drink for you (or bar staff does) * he drinks with you and bullshits with you * he can discount your food and you tip him * you develop a relationship if you go there often you are assigning undue uniqueness to the sushi bar experience because it's not western cuisine. the actual interaction is not unique. there's also plenty of other cuisines in asia (outside of japan) that work the same way, i.e. street food, noodle bars, etc.
- rdl 13y agoI rarely go to bars with food (or at least, don't order food), and at a lot of bars, the point seems to be to interact with other patrons, which is different from a sushi bar (where that ~never happens).
- beachstartup 13y agoi would say when i'm eating alone, it's almost always at a bar of some sort. and i interact with my neighbors at the sushi bar all the time. so does everyone i know who likes sushi. especially when i'm drunk.
- samstave 13y agoHow about a restaurant where you are always paired up to eat with a stranger (or maybe two strangers). Get to know eachother and its a set price - so you always both pay exactly the same amount; say $25.
- rdl 13y agoTalking to strangers w/o context is something I'd pay $25-50 to avoid, generally. If it were strongly filtered by interest, perhaps, but the problem with 1:1 while eating is you're trapped. The nice thing about a sushi chef (or bartender) is they know when to stop, and what topics to stick to.
- sukuriant 13y agoThen maybe add a context :) The world needs more places where people can just come together without pretense and maybe a common interest and mingle. I, for one, don't get into the club or bar scene, since I'm not a drinker and I'm bad at dancing; and not everyone is religious, so Church doesn't serve that purpose well, either
- nitrogen 13y agoStartup opportunities abound. I look forward to the day a solution is found.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- zhemao 13y ago> at a lot of bars, the point seems to be to interact with other patrons Not really. The bar gets money from you drinking, not from you talking. That's why they play the music so damn loud.
- beachstartup 13y ago> my favorite "eat alone" option is a sushi bar > I rarely go to bars with food do you see how you're partitioning japanese things from non-japanese things in your mind, even though they are exactly the same thing?
- vanattab 13y agoI could not agree more. I am eating a late lunch alone at my favorite sushi bar as we speak! ... well type anyway.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]