Next time you dine out, share your table with someone you've never met. Virginia's new program "OpenSeat" brings strangers together to eat.

Have you ever been out to dinner alone, surrounded by laughing families and groups of friends, only to see a few other diners also enjoying their meal silently? Have you ever watched a stranger and wondered what they were thinking about, but knew it would be weird to ask them? Well, it's not weird anymore.

In Virginia, there's a program for that. It's called OpenSeat, and it's a service that aims to bring strangers in Virginia together to eat -- because, after all, Virginia is for lovers, right?

The program launched by the Virginia Tourism Corporation in partnership with online restaurant reservation tool OpenTable pairs strangers dining alone -- or groups of friends who'd just love to share their table with someone new.

Groups of any size can participate, and all participants receive a free appetizer while dining. 

Here's how it works. Book a reservation at your favorite restaurant on the OpenTable app or website. Before you submit, in the notes section of your reservation, just write "OpenSeat." If another person or group did the same, you'll be seated together.

More than 30 restaurants across the state have signed on to the program. Participants include restaurants in cities including Alexandria, Norfolk, Fairfax, Charlottesville, and Richmond, just to name a few.

In Richmond, participating restaurants include Saison, Max's on Broad, Maple & Pine, Comfort, The Hard Shell, Sam Miller's, Pasture, Rappahannock, and Tarrant's Cafe, among others.

(You can view an interactive map of OpenSeat restaurants here.)

OpenSeat helps restaurants fill tables, and it just might bring communities a little bit closer. In a press release shared on September 27, Rita McClenny, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corp., said she certainly hopes so -- and she hopes that OpenSeat encourages Virginia residents to really enjoy the things our state is renowned for, like excellent food.

“Virginia has quickly become one of the most celebrated destinations in the country for culinary enthusiasts,” McClenny in her statement. "The OpenSeat program allows diners to meet new people over a shared meal at our most beloved restaurants. We are thrilled to be partnering with OpenTable this fall on such a fun, innovative program that is sure to bring many new people together.”

OpenTable's Chief Dining Officer Caroline Potter summed up the quietly beautiful appeal of an idea so simple as sharing your meal with a stranger.

“To paraphrase William Butler Yeats, there are no strangers, only friends we haven’t yet met,” OpenTable's Caroline Potter said in a statement about the program.

Courtesy of OpenTable/Virginia Tourism Corporation

Who knows? You might meet your new best friend -- or someone who brightens your day in a way you never expected.

After all, in this strange, lovely world, it is nice sometimes to remember that no matter how much our minds chatter in frenetic madness at any given moment, there are seven billion other people on this planet, and no matter how badly we wish it, not one of us is alone here in this human experience.

Life is always interesting in single-player mode, but there is a wonder and a special kind of poetry to those small moments when they are shared. That weird wonder we feel in sharing the smallest of moments, even a fire drill or traffic jam or a conversation at the bus stop, is a little bit sacred, in a way, even if only because we shared it. It's a unique interpersonal dynamic that comes in the confusing, unabashed encounter -- moments when strangers who would otherwise never meet intermingle -- when people have no reason or need to talk to each other, but they do anyway -- when you bond with that stranger in the lobby or at a concert, and you don't share much in life, but you did share this moment. We share the moments of our lives with other people, always. Sometimes it's nice to remember that we are not alone for the ride -- to smile at a stranger and invite them to your table just because. Or, just because the world is big, and whether what you have is joy or pain, both are better when shared.

Would you want to have dinner with a stranger? Drop a comment below, and let us know what you think about OpenSeat and whether you'd use it!

A box of 60-year-old love letters were found in the attic of a Chesapeake home. Read this sweet story right here!