Dining Solo? Don't Feel Pathetic, You're Not Alone

No need to feel like a loser next time you dine out alone: You're actually in good company. According to an analysis by king of online restaurant reservations OpenTable, reservations for tables of one have gone up 62 percent over the past two years — meaning dining rooms are catering to more solo diners than ever.

The analysis also revealed that Dallas "experienced the strongest growth in reservations for one," followed by Miami, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

While diners in America are enjoying a cultural acceptance of solo dining that didn't exist in decades past — clearly, we don't need any more essays on why dining alone is great — in other countries it's a bit different: In China, eating alone has long been considered taboo, though that's beginning to change. In Japan, solo diners are sometimes coddled so they don't feel bad, with a Tokyo restaurant banning couples on New Year's Eve so as not to make singles feel bad about ringing in the New Year alone, and another providing stuffed animals for companionship.