While it's true restaurants everywhere are feeling the pinch of the recession, if you're only cooking for a handful of people every night, believe me, you have problems that need fixin'. Sure, your competitors who are booked a week out have problems, too; but yours are worse. You need to stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and really face the music.
 
If your numbers are down, do two things:
 
1. Eat in your restaurant, a lot, and so that your presence isn't such that everyone is walking on eggshells. Make like your customers, to whom it is obvious most of the time what isn't working. Think about everything from the way they are greeted when they walk in the door to how often they see their server and, of course, the quality and consistency of the food. If you were paying to eat in your restaurant, if you were coming in after a long day at the office or to celebrate an occasion, would you feel like you got your money's worth and more?
 
2. Befriend the people who are eating in your restaurant -- and I don't mean in a slimy, opportunistic way. Thank them for choosing to dine with you, ask them what they like about your place, and ask them what they want to see more of. Then, deliver, so that they eat there more often.
 
3. Don't stop there. Your friends have friends. Encourage them to bring them in. And use social media, like Twitter and Facebook, to stay in touch with your friends -- and to get in touch with their friends, because most of them are all right there for you to connect with.
 
The bottom line: Learn what your customers like, and give them more of that and less of what they don't like. And whatever you do, don't go trying to find an entirely new group of friends. That's about as do-able as switching from the dorky group to the popular group in high school.