Love eating alone? A solo dining restaurant just opened in Toronto
Introverts, meet your match.
Wooden panels separate cubicles, call buttons let diners choose when they interact with restaurant staff, and phone stands sit on every table, making it completely socially acceptable to put headphones in and watch Netflix.
“In North America, eating alone is sad,” Andy Su, co-owner of Yunnan Noodle Shack with his wife Jane Yu, told CTV News Toronto, miming air quotes around the word sad.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
It’s an unconventional combination – the dim lighting of a spa, the cubicles of a library and the breezy music of a jazz club – but it works.
“We just want to be the background, the customer is the main character,” Su said, sitting in one of his restaurant’s cubicles ahead of the grand opening this week, located downtown on Baldwin Street near Beverley Street.
Su and Yu moved to Canada from China more than a decade ago. Back home, eating alone is common, particularly at lunchtime, Yu explained. But apart from ramen counters, the couple noticed solo dining didn’t exist in Toronto.
“It’s so good when you can truly feel yourself again. Probably somewhere inside of you, someone is screaming, ‘I’m here! Why’d you leave me in a dark spot for a long time?’ Have a conversation with yourself,” Su said.
Yunnan is named after Su’s hometown in southwestern China and the menu is based on dishes from there – minced pork chili or slow cooked pork shoulder paired with rice noodles, hot and sour wontons, and a pan fried egg with in-house pickled cabbage and cold rice noodles for the non-meat eaters.
Before Yunnan, Su went to law school and Yu was an early childhood educator. But as Yu put it, quoting Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump", “Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're going to get.”
The couple is aiming to open a “Yin” to the restaurant’s solitary “Yang,” next door, hopefully in June.
Su paints a picture of a Chinese bakery where they serve handmade rice balls with lemon tea. A social scene spills out onto the stairs outside where live music accompanies chatter.
“On the stairs, people are chatting. Inside, people are thinking,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
Expert warns of food consumption habits amid rising prices
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
Ex-tabloid publisher testifies he scooped up possibly damaging tales to shield his old friend Trump
As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye.
Here's why provinces aren't following Saskatchewan's lead on the carbon tax home heating fight
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye make it four NFL drafts with quarterbacks going 1-3
Caleb Williams is heading to the Windy City, aiming to become the franchise quarterback Chicago has sought for decades.