A RESTAURANT OWNER'S GUIDE TO SERVING SINGLE LADIES

I love traveling around the world and around my town. Since I was young I learned to enjoy things around me regardless of whether I was alone or accompanied. There was nothing remarkable about that until I became an adult and suddenly, there was an expectation that I should always be accompanied. This expectation or assumption has led to many awkward moments with various service providers, but particularly with the restaurant industry. So here are some tips I would like to give to restaurateurs if you would like to maintain the patronage of people who are patronizing you on their own:

DON'T: Ask "just one?"
DO: Say "thank you for choosing us today"

DON'T: Take the food away when the customer goes to the bathroom
DO: Ask the customer whether they are done with their plate

DON'T: Have one tiny table in the back of the restaurant
DO: Have small tables spread throughout the restaurant

DON'T: Let the customer to their own devices when it comes to safeguarding their personal items
DO: Have a place where customers can leave their personal items while in the restroom, this might also reduce the likelihood of the food being removed before they are done with their meal.

These are just a few tips, I am sure others will have more suggestions to make. I never thought doing things on my own would be so difficult of a concept for others to grasp. I mean it is 2014 and I have the right to enter any contract I want to on my own, so why not eat?

Comments

THOUGHTS ON MOTHERS, FASHION AND BODY IMAGE

It wasn't until I was 13 years old that I learned I was fat. That was the year I moved to the United States and began to have a difficult time finding clothes that fit appropriately. I never really thought about that change until much later when I would look back on childhood photos and was surprised by how well my clothes fit, and how well-dressed I mostly was. As someone who is very fashionably challenged, I was surprised that at some point in time, I knew how to dress well...and I seemed to have lost the skill once I had many clothing options. When did I lose that skill? I began to explore that phenomena and quickly came to an odd realization. In the U.S. I clearly always had more clothing options that I ever did in Venezuela. Ready-made clothes in the U.S. were affordable so everyone could buy them. That was the key, in Venezuela, ready-made clothes were very expensive, so not too many people purchased them. In fact, I don't remember my mom buying anything ready-mad...

I CAN'T PASS JUDGMENT ANYMORE

I know all of my friends are loving the ease and convenience of carrying books around on a Kindle, or whatever the gadget of the day is, but this move to electronic reading is really affecting my ability to judge others, yes, you heard me right-judging others is now difficult. It used to be that I could sit on the train and just by watching book covers, and their respective readers, I would get an idea of what books I might like. Now, everyone has a kindle and I can't really derive reading recommendations without appearing to be a stalker. But worse than that, new friendships are severely affected. I used to be able to walk into someone's house and look at their bookcase and know whether I should run the other way-now, the non-visibility of books makes identifying incompatibility so much more difficult. For example, if someone were to walk into my house, this is what they might see: You would be correct in making quite a few assumptions about me based on this ...

MOTHERHOOD: A SITE OF VICIOUS NEGOTIATION

I woke up this morning to a baby puking on me while smiling unapologetically. For the first time her lack of inhibition worried me. This Mother's Day, I thought I'd be reflecting on being a mother for the first time and jot down some mushy words, instead, I think back to the day I walked in on my mom having greater aspirations for my daughter than she did for me. My dad raised me to thrive in the world I deserved, my mom raised me to survive in the world I was born into. Needles to say, my dad's parenting was liberating and empowering, my mom's was stifling and suffocating, so of the two parents I always rebelled against HER. She would often say that I was created fighting her given how difficult her pregnancy was with me. She was right, my earliest memories with my mom are of our arguments. We fought like the swords of two warriors: I was driven by a desire to be free and capable, her by fear that I might suffer consequences the patriarchy metes out to misbehaving wo...

MODERN IFIGENIA

Search This Blog