No supper for you, señor: Restaurants ban solo diners

Foreign visitors to Spain wanting to dine alone in restaurants have at times noted a chilly reception from waiters who direct them to tables in the dingiest recesses of their establishments.

The un-Spanish behaviour of eating alone is best hidden from other patrons. But now restaurateurs in Barcelona have started banning solo diners entirely, on the basis that it is bad for business, when a table can be given instead to a group of tourists.

Locals wanting to eat alone on restaurant terraces, which are at a premium in the spring and summer, are incensed at being turned away. The practice has become particularly prevalent in restaurants in the centre of Barcelona — on the Carrer de Blai, a street known for its tapas bars,