Question: I often end up eating in restaurants and cafes alone, but I feel uncomfortable. What can I do to feel better about it?- Alone at Table Five

Good Question. The short answer is get over it.

The long answer is get over it too, but since you're alone at table five reading this you have plenty of time. Here goes:

Fruit Loops are, technically, food; and tossing handfuls into your mouth is, strictly speaking, eating; but it's so much more nourishing and satisfying to have a proper, hot meal at a restaurant.

I don't have to tell you, AATF, that there are a number of reasons why someone might be going out to eat without a companion. Maybe you're travelling alone. Maybe your plans with someone else fell through. Maybe you don't have the skills or the time to cook. Maybe you have been running errands and are about to faint from hypoglycemia. Why should you be expected to eat fast food in your car? Don't you deserve better?

Granted, eating alone in a restaurant can be unpleasant. It's easy to project your discomfort on the wait staff, and believe that their every move and word is calculated to drive you away. The very thought of going out alone starts a bad daydream newsreel in your head…

You're greeted at the door with "Just one?" and shuttled to the section of the person with the least seniority, whose shoulders slump and eyes roll as they see you approach because you represent half the tip of a couple but just as many trips to the table.

Your server will instinctively speculate as to why you're alone, perhaps consciously and perhaps not. Maybe, they think, you have no friends. Maybe it's for a good reason. Maybe you're lonely, and ready to make an aggressive yet pathetic stab at making a new friend with the next person who makes eye contact. A new friend to eventually alienate with your strange behavior and insensitive words (if this really does describe you, stay out of restaurants, you're ruining it for everybody). Your server will avoid eye contact.

You try to disarm their suspicions with a small joke ("Excuse me, but my alphabet soup... it's in French.") and a big, toothy smile, but they can't tell whether you're joking or crazy, so they mutter an apology to be on the safe side. They tell the cook, who peers out at you from behind the heat lamps and contemplates calling the police.

Or so it all seems sometimes. But it isn't as bad as you think. Restaurants see people eat alone all the time. Walk downtown and peek into windows, you'll see.

Are you a burden? Well, you eating alone is still better business and more tips than an empty table. And if the place is swamped, you might be a bit of strain relief for the wait staff and cooks. A swamped kitchen can deal with coordinating one meal much more easily than a table of six.

Even once you realize that the staff doesn't hate you and you're not going to drive the business to ruin, there's still a certain awkwardness to eating alone. Does it make you feel like you've mismanaged your social life? With nobody to talk to, where do you turn your attention?

You wouldn't be the first to pretend to be a restaurant critic. A small notebook, too many questions about wine, and a "ho-hum another day at work" demeanor all work together to say "Diner pretending to be a restaurant critic." You don't want the staff to conclude that you're trying to fool them, do you?

The age-old solution is one that may well be in effect right now--reading. The Good Times has been giving lone diners something to read for over 25 years. Reading implies that you want to be alone; you don't want the distractions of company. You will seem cool and mysterious, James Bond in foreign territory.

Unless you can't get the food to your mouth without assistance, there's no real reason you should feel compelled to dine with a companion. Sometimes it's nice and peaceful to eat alone. You can really concentrate on the taste of the food, at least until the violinist strolls over to your table.