According to OpenTable's solo dining reservations are up 8% this year and the average solo diner spends about $84.

So here with me now in studio of 57 to discuss this trend is Steven Zagor. He is a restaurant consultant, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Business School.

Thank you so much for joining us.

参加してくれて本当にありがとう。休憩時間に少し話をしているんだけど、僕は一人っ子なんだ。

So we're just talking a little bit in the break and I am an only child.

So I am very comfortable solo everything, but dining, I've been solo dining for a while but I guess it's finally people are catching up with what I already knew.

だから、私はソロのすべてが非常に快適ですが、ダイニング 私はしばらくの間、ソロのダイニングを持っていた しかし、それは最終的に人々が私がすでに知っていたことをキャッチアップしていると思う あなたはすでにソロモードに入っている だから、あなたにとって外食はちょうどあなたが行く一人でいることの延長である。

Exactly. You're already into the solo mode, so for you, dining out is just an extension of being on your own.

You go, "Well, I'm here today at home, I might as well just go out by myself."

まあ、今日は家にいるから......一人で出かけた方がいいかもしれないね。

Yeah, and I enjoy it.

ああ、楽しんでいるよ。

You enjoy your own company.

そうだね、自分の仲間と一緒にいるようなものだけど、人前にいるようなものだから、人と一緒にいるのは好きだけど、必ずしも一緒に食事をしたいとは思わない。

Yeah, and it's a combination of it's like your own company, but you're in public.

So I like to be around people, but I don't necessarily want to be like sharing a meal with them.

But [what] you said [is] a really key thing: dining out is an experience.

It's not just going out to eat. You're feeling all the vibes around you. - Yeah.

ただ食事に行くだけじゃない。

You're feeling the energy of other people, you're seeing the action maybe at a bar or waiters and waitresses moving around.

バーでウェイターやウェイトレスが動き回っているのを見たりね。

So you've left that moment of solitude, being alone, and you come out to a different location where you're still alone, but you're embracing all the things that are going on.

その瞬間から離れ、別の場所で孤独になりながら、起こっているすべてのことを受け入れる。

So like why is this happening more and more?

Is it that we are generally, you know, operating alone more and more and so we just don't have the connections to like gather people to go out or what's going?

私たちが一般的だということだろうか？一人で行動することが多くなり、外出するために人を集めるようなコネクションがないんだ。

We are. We are more alone. We are living alone more studies have said more and more single people living by themselves.

私たちはもっと孤独になっている 一人暮らしが増えているという調査結果もある。

We are marrying later.

私たちは後で結婚するつもりだった。

We have longer [time] to get kids. We're not getting kids quite as quickly

私たちは子供たちを獲得するのに長い時間がかかる。

And we are much more confident and the the millennial generation and the Gen Zs, you can almost call them the Me-llennials or the Gen Me's because they are very confident and not necessarily in need of companionship.

ミレニアル世代とZ世代は、ミレニアル世代、あるいはミー世代と呼んでもいいくらいで、彼らはとても自信に満ちていて、必ずしも交友関係を必要としていない。

And the other huge force is women,

women who are much more confident and much more in not in need of being with somebody and feel much more confident. They can embrace that solitude of going out to eat and not feeling like they're oh, "I don't think I can do this."

Right, you don't gotta wait till somebody asks you out on a date or something.

誰かにデートに誘われるまで待たなくてもいいし、いいレストランに行っておいしい食事をしたいなら、そのお金を自分のために使ってもいい。

If you want to go a nice restaurant and have a good meal, you can spend that money on yourself. - That's exactly.

So restaurants are sort of changing to accommodate this trend.

I remember when I was in Japan last year, they have these like solo restaurants where I mean you sit down, you don't have to talk to a server It's just sort of in a cubicle.

去年日本に行ったとき、一人用のレストランがあって、席に座るとサーバーと話さなくていいんだ。

That's the most extreme version of it.

それが最も極端なバージョンだ。

But what are restaurants doing here?

しかし、レストランはここで何をしているのだろう？

Well, I think a good restaurant embraces the reason why the person is there.

いいレストランというのは、その人がそこにいる理由を受け入れるものだと思う。

There are people that are there to decompress. They don't want to be involved with other people.

他の人とは関わりたくないんだ。

They don't want to be sitting at a bar, they don't want to sit at a communal table.

彼らはバーに座りたくないし、共同テーブルにも座りたくない。

They just want to be by themselves and you have to kind of read the moment. - Yeah.

彼らはただ一人になりたいだけで、あなたはその瞬間を読まなければならない。

Others are looking for yes, I'll sit at the bar because I just want to have that connectivity, maybe they'll sit at a communal table.

Restaurants, we forget sometimes [that] restaurants sell seats.

They don't sell tables, they sell seats.

テーブルは売っていない。

Effectively, they're a real estate company, they're renting seats for a meal period and the average check is that rent and they want to maximize that,

席を効率的に売る、そのため、一人でも席を埋めることができれば、経済的なメリットがありますし、バーで食事をする人のためにプロモーションをしたり、共同テーブルで一人で食事をする人のためにプロモーションをしたりすることもできます。バーで食べる人向けのプロモーションをやるとか、共同テーブルで一人で食べる人向けのプロモーションをやるとか、そういうことができる。

so if you can look at it as a seat that you can fill with a single person that benefits you financially and even go as far as saying maybe we're gonna do promotions for people eating at the bar,

maybe we're gonna have promotions for people eat by themselves at a communal table.

So it's really a chance to kind of say I really love this because I can maximize my volume by getting those seats filled.

Are you surprised by that number that the average solo diner spends $84 like that's not cheap.

I am surprised. I mean, I'm surprised.

驚いている......つまり、驚いているんだ。

Yeah, it's that's a lot.

ええ、たくさんありますよ。

That's good That might be worth it for restaurants to lean into that.

それはいいことだ。レストランにとっては、そこに傾注する価値があるかもしれない。

It is. I always ask my students, I always say, "How many of you take more pictures of your food than your family and friends?"

私はいつも生徒たちに、家族や友人よりも食べ物の写真を撮る人は何人いるかと聞くと、ほとんど全員の手が上がる。分からないよ。

And almost all the hands go up. - I can imagine.

And I think to myself, either you've got to get better family and friends or maybe are you dating your cheeseburger? I don't know.

The food is so dang good-looking.

料理はとても美味しそうだ。

Maybe your friends are not, I don't know.

もしかしたら、あなたの友達がいないかもしれない。 インスタグラムがすべて用意されているわけではない。本当にありがとう。

Maybe. Maybe your friends are not. We're not all Instagram will be ready.

Stephen Zagor. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

どういたしまして