A Woman Alone, Plus: Cheers!

 

Yesterday, late morning, I mentioned to my husband that I was really craving blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs. He heard me. He took in what I said, but not what I meant. I realized this when he left to visit his favorite guitar store and I was still home craving blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs. 

Yes, my brain had been operating on that old playbook where the woman says, “Gee, wouldn’t ______ be great?” and then the man says, “Well, why don’t we go out for a late breakfast?” or whatever she has hinted at. It is 2024 and we are all far too enlightened for such shenanigans. Aren’t we?

In my husband’s defense, I have rarely asked to go out to eat since March of 2021 and perhaps he has forgotten what it sounds like.

Back to breakfast. I pondered the possibility of taking myself out to breakfast. I could bring a book, or my journal, or my iPad to keep me company. But one thing was nagging me about the logistics of this plan. I decided to put it to the folks in the Howard County Eats Facebook group.

Do First Watch and/or Bob Evans seat single diners? I’m craving blueberry pancakes but my husband just left for a trip to his beloved guitar store, lol.

I received quite a bit of moral support. I’d say most were puzzled by my question. 

“Of course they would, why wouldn’t they?” was the general tone. 

I realized that I was harboring a very last-century fear about not wanting to be A Woman Alone in a restaurant. I would have thought that I had progressed beyond such notions, probably passed on to me by my mother. She was also the person who told me that, as a woman, I would never see the underside of a dinner check.

She was wrong.

The bonus of my interaction on Facebook was a variety of suggestions where one might get good blueberry pancakes in Howard County. In addition to my two, First Watch and Bob Evans, readers recommended:

• Silver Diner
• The Trolley Stop
• Jam Eateries
• Daniels in Elkridge (with a shoutout to Trueth bacon)
• Another Broken Egg, also in Elkridge 
• EC Diner

I also learned that the Silver Diner has a counter if I’d be more comfortable choosing that as a single diner, and that First Watch has a “Community Table.” 

First Watch also has a 'community table'. There are 6 or so seats and you can sit there anytime there is an open seat, no waiting. We've done this when the wait was long and it was fun. We chatted with the others at the table and had a nice breakfast.

One reader offered up an article on the joys of dining alone.

The glories of dining out alone , Allissa Wilkinson, Vox

I studied the Facebook thread. I thought about it. And then I texted my husband and asked if he’d take me out to dinner somewhere I could get blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs. 

And he said, “Sure!” And he did. Pictured: breakfast for dinner at Bob Evans at Lark Brown.

Not pictured: the vintage banjo my husband brought home from Atomic Music, inexplicably made by the Bacon* banjo company. 

I’m sure I’ll eventually remember how to get out there and be an independent woman. But, on a cold, wet, gray day in May it was a treat to end the day over warm and simple food with someone who’d probably do anything for me - - except read my mind, that is.

Today marks my thirteenth blogiversary. Cheers! Thanks for reading.

Village Green/Town² Comments

*Bacon & Day, actually. But - - seriously - - bacon?