[NYT] Restaurants have been slow to recognize, much less meet, the needs of plus-size Americans. But there are signs of a new activism and awareness.Rebecca Alexander’s worst experience dining while large happened just after she nailed a promotion at a nonprofit organization.
She took her staff, and her new boss, to lunch at a promising downtown restaurant in Portland, Ore., where she lives. As the hostess led the group to a booth, Ms. Alexander, a 31-year-old who wears a size 30, knew in an instant there was no way she was going to squeeze into it.
"I remember having this out-of-body experience," she said. "I watched myself sit down and try to get in even though I knew the space was too small, because I so needed it to fit." Defeated, she asked for a table. The hostess told her there would be a half-hour wait.
"The cherry on top was that I got to be the reason we had to stand around for 30 minutes," she said.
For people who identify as large, plus-size or fat, dining out can be a social and physical minefield. Chairs with arms or impossibly small seats leave marks and bruises. Meals are spent in pain, or filled with worry that a flimsy chair might collapse.