Dining alone can sometimes be a pleasant way to shut out the rest of the world, but most of the time, it's just plain lonely. Sitting at the bar alone can be agony for women who must fend off men on the make. And let's just say it: Most maître d's and waiters don't relish serving a solo when two or more people will tip better.

With these woes in mind, a number of canny restaurateurs have put communal tables in their dining rooms in an effort to allow people to interact on a casual basis over a common good—food and wine. At a communal table (which once connoted vagrant hippies sharing bean sprouts, jug wine and Grateful Dead albums), you can now find the happy buoyancy of people to your left, your right and across the table. This configuration allows you to enter into conversation easily, with an opener like, "How are the truffle-laced potatoes?" rather than "What's your sign?"

In many cases, communal tables have become part of the trendiest restaurant design concepts. While not unique to the restaurants of China Grill Management (CGM), the company's 24 high-concept eateries, including China Grill, Asia de Cuba and Red Square in cities like New York, Mexico City, London and Las Vegas, pioneered the communal table idea. In most of those places, the table is integrated into a loud party atmosphere designed to draw solo diners together.

Blue Door, Miami Beach, Florida
1685 Collins Avenue, 305-674-6400. My favorite of CGM owner Jeffrey Chorodow's restaurants is elegantly swanky Blue Door at the Delano Hotel on Miami Beach. Here the haute Latino cuisine, under consulting chef Claude Troigros, is some of the best in Florida, including an avocado-and-blue-crab salad, lobster with caramelized bananas and his signature "crêpe passion" dessert. The communal table, which features plenty of small bites, shellfish and sushi, is set away from the main dining room, off a lobby hall ideal for people-watching, and you can easily make new friends or meet old ones over a well-made mojito or daiquiri.

Enoteca Drago, Beverly Hills, California
410 North Cañon Drive, 310-786-8236. In Beverly Hills, where table-hopping and kiss-blowing at restaurants are nightly rituals, this darling new trattoria is turning out some of the best pastas, antipasti and seafood around to a crowd whose lucky few can claim one of the 10 seats at the communal table. Chef Celestino Drago makes everything from scratch, from the pastas to the thin-crust pizzas, and the small plates are perfect for sharing a morsel of this prosciutto and a piece of that Parmigiano, along with 250 labels on the wine list and 50 vintages available by the glass. You never know whose famous face might be coming through the door.

Jer-ne, Marina del Rey, California
4375 Admiralty Way, 310-823-1700. Chef Troy Thompson's fabulous Asian cuisine is served at Jer-ne in the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the dining room, on the al fresco terrace or at specially built communal tables just off the dining room. Solo diners or groups of friends gather here to sip cosmos and feast on Thompson's fusion creations, which Los Angeles Magazine has called the best of their kind. The table itself, designed by Guenter Sprang, is 14 feet long and seats 18 people, and is made from "caramel" onyx atop stainless steel. This marina can be a safe haven for singles and solos, and sommelier Alison Junker is very good at discussing wines at the table so everyone gets to learn something while finding like-minded people.

Moda, Providence, Rhode Island
525 S. Water Street, 401-331-2288. I've been quite impressed by Moda, the hot new restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island. The name tells you a good deal about the style of the place—black quilted walls, spare tables and chairs, and a wonderful sunset view of the Providence River. Chef Jules Ramos calls his food "Progressive American," with a fresh take on just about everything, from a tropical scallop carpaccio with spicy coconut dressing to mahi-mahi with tomato risotto and sautéed vegetables. In the center of the upstairs dining room is a communal table that might be taken over some nights by girlfriends having a reunion or guys just back from a sports event. And, after a dinner of grilled prime sirloin with shoestring potatoes, asparagus and tangerine chimichurri or miso-glazed tuna, they might all retire downstairs to the lounge to listen to jazz and watch the river flow.

Mas, New York, New York
39 Downing Street, 212-255-1790. One of the smallest communal tables in one of the smallest fine restaurants in NYC's Greenwich Village is at Mas, whose name means "farmhouse" in Provençal French. This little gem is done up with stone pillars, wooden beams and linen-topped tables, one of which allows solo diners to get together and, inevitably, turn to conversation about Chef Galen Zamarra's rustic but stylish cooking: rainbow trout stuffed with wild ramps and smoked trout with onions and fennel; big-eye tuna quickly seared in beurre noisette, with crispy organic shallots; plump, pink squab baked in clay with a bordelaise duck tart; and grilled Portuguese sardines on a Parmesan cookie with caramelized onions and toasted-pine-nut dressing. Women in particular seem to congregate here with friends after work to drink good wine and dine lightly.

Zaytinya, Washington, D.C.
701 9th Street NW, 202-638-0800. One of the biggest recent hits in Washington, D.C., a town teeming with young lawmakers, ambassadorial staff, lobbyists and interns, is Zaytinya, whose principal design element—besides a 30-foot ceiling—is a very long table that dominates the dining room. The food here is Middle Eastern, and the menu is full of dozens of mezes—small, appetizer-like portions of zesty Greek, Lebanese and Turkish food like roasted eggplant with onions, tomatoes and olive oil; fried mussels with pistachio sauce; grilled pork and orange-rind sausage with bean stew; and larger dishes like juicy roast chicken with walnut sauce and pomegranate juice. All of it is meant to be shared, and this kind of food and atmosphere really do feel like a party every night of the week, especially when the ouzo starts flowing and the bouzouki music picks up speed.

The Point, Lake Saranac, New York
800-255-3530, www.thepointresort.com. For what I consider the ultimate in communal tables—and not a place one goes for a casual bite—The Point is unique in every way. This former Rockefeller summer residence, set in the majestic beauty of the Adirondacks beside a pristine lake, has just eleven large guestrooms in four buildings, going for between $1,250 and $2,500 per night. Each is a reverie of backwoods decor designed to evoke the days when these huge "camps" were playgrounds for wealthy families. Indeed, The Point still is, and one of its more civilized elements is two communal dining tables, where—over fine cuisine that might include roast rack and loin of lamb with pommes fondant and Burgundy jus, a Champagne raspberry delice and well-chosen wines—you will very likely be seated next to a young mover and shaker from Wall Street, a best-selling novelist from Vermont or a top cardiologist from Houston. The conversation is of a high, convivial order, and on Saturday night, it's all black tie. Or, if you prefer to dine among only your friends, you can rent the entire place out for $18,650 a night.

John Mariani is a food writer for Esquire and Wine Spectator.