It was the Edgewater Cafe at the Science Centre, sometime around 1994, I think.
The guy seemed to really remember me, down to the fact that I was staying at the Sheraton, so I don’t think it was a formula.
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I mean, the part where he mentioned that he remembered you on your first visit, not on the second visit, where he remembered you stayed at the Sheraton 
I never made it to the Edgewater Café.
No, it was on the first visit that he mentioned the Sheraton.
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And sometimes they just honestly want to try something that looks good to them. I have a friend like this. But to her credit, she asks and waits until the askee uses cutlery to place it on her plate and she always offers a taste of hers to the others at the table. The rise of small plate restaurants was a real blessing 
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Of course. There are many reasons people might ask for a bite.
Okay my misunderstanding
Well that’s an awesome story! Why correct them?
My PIC and I almost always share dessert (if we are having any). Neither of us are on a diet, but we are usually too stuffed from the savory dishes.
It has only very recently occurred to us that a dessert can be packed up and taken home to be enjoyed (and shared) at a later point in the evening 
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Just read this from Jay Rayner in The Guardian, “Eating alone in a restaurant is dinner with someone you love.” Bravo!
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The point about the pandemic is interesting. Other than Zoom, we were cut off from colleagues and friends. Yet most of us never really got a moment really alone. There was no solitary commute to work when you could just process thoughts without interruption, no quiet meal on your own. As I said above, I have always been ok dining alone, but I do wonder if the pandemic does have folks craving a little alone time. Of course, for those who were alone at the time, I suppose it would have the opposite effect.
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That’s an adaptation of a Woody Allen quote, and it’s not about dinner, and I’ll just let you look it up yourself.
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I have a friend who’s a therapist, and she said she very much missed the subway ride from her office at the end of the day, a “separation” between work and home. During the pandemic, she saw her patients online, and she just walked out of her home office and boom! the family was right there.
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Yes, the commute in was always psyche yourself up\mentally prep for the day. The commute home was decompression time. I’m a firm believer in alone time wherever you can find it.
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Is it possible that the hotel concierge called the restaurant and told them to look out for you?
“When Karen Follon, 77, a retired development director for the Omaha Symphony, sees someone alone at a table, she feels sorry for them. “The conversation is an important part of the meal,” she said.”
How Karen of her, she should save her pity for those that deserve it 
I’ve never had a problem snagging a reso for one, if they don’t offer the option, I’ll ask my concierge to call them. I also enjoy and prefer sitting at the bar if it’s available.
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No, because I usually don’t ask the concierge to make a reservation for me.
However, I once asked a concierge in San Francisco to recommend a sushi restaurant for me. I enjoyed it so much that I spent over $100 (this was in 2007).
Which sushi place? I’m always looking to find a new place to try when I have occasion to get into the city.
I eat alone at restaurants — and I do it a lot. This usually seems to make people around me uncomfortable. Recently, I went to a restaurant for dinner and mistakenly booked a table for two instead of one. The host and I hashed this out, and I sat down. The chef working that night saw me and came to say how sorry she was that I had, in her mind, been abandoned for the evening. Before I could correct her, she gave me an extra elderberry verbena kombucha for my woes, gazing at me tenderly like I was Samantha Jones crying in a restaurant after being stood up.
Gift Link
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