Denver & Boulder
Alone

PRACTICAL SAMPLE

Dining Alone, Concretely

Both cities handle a solo diner well, and the specifics are worth having rather than assuming.

Denver’s restaurant scene, spread across RiNo, the Highlands, Capitol Hill and downtown, carries a substantial number of counter and bar-dining rooms where eating alone is ordinary practice, not something a host has to accommodate. The formats that make it easiest are worth knowing by name. A brewery taproom, where you order at a counter and sit at a communal table or the bar, removes the question of a table for one entirely. A food hall, where several kitchens share a room and a bar holds the middle, lets you order two small things from different counters and eat them at a shared table without occupying anything built for a group. A diner counter at breakfast is the least self-conscious meal in the region. And the bar of a serious restaurant, particularly in the earlier part of the evening, generally delivers more attentive service than a two-top in the dining room, because the person cooking or pouring is directly in front of you.

A free excerpt from Denver & Boulder Alone.