Beth, my Creative Writing instructor, emails me from France. She comments on my solo fine dining experience in Sarlat la Caneda (see February 25 blog entry). Eating alone does not even seem an oddity anymore. I eat well and vow not to let my singleness dictate my dining options. Luckily with culinary delights high on French priorities, solo dining is not uncommon. (In Paris, it is also not uncommon to meet nice young men outside restaurants and have a meal together...). There is the upside to being alone: I am sure that even with truffles before me, I would be more focused on the conversation than the decadence before me.
In Toronto, solo dining is a bit rarer. In smaller towns like Thunder Bay, I even get strange stares from fellow diners. Occasionally, the experience is memorable in a positive way.
When I first started working downtown, I decided on a whim to celebrate by dining at one of my favourite restaurants, Jump. The maitre d’ seats me, then promptly asks if I would like a magazine to read.
“Sure!” I replied.
“What would you like to read?”
“What magazines do you have? I’ll just pick from your selection.”
“Actually, I am going to buy you the magazine of your choice.”
“How about ‘Metropolitan Home’?”
He disappears. After 10 minutes, I see him walking into the restaurant, but stayed by the door. After another 15 minutes, he approaches the table, magazine in hand.
“I couldn’t find the magazine so I sent someone else to get it from another shop.”
A maitre d’, showing such rare thoughtfulness to the solo diner. I linger at the restaurant. I stay for dessert instead of rushing off after my main course. I relate this experience to many a diner over the years. It was a wise $6 dollar investment on his part.
I walk into Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. This does not really fit into my plans for the year but I need my advanced cardiac life support responder recertification. I relearn my ABC’s, except now it is CAB--circulation is now higher priority than airway and breathing. Chest compressions follow the rhythm of ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
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