Do you go to coffee-shops to talk to people (like at a bar)?
 

Do people actually do that in the U.K., or is it unheard of outside the corporate gregariousness of Wall Street?

NO

Sometimes yes, I'm naturally chatty and talk to people in all sorts of places.

I can't. I'm clean shaven.

Too much information

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Starbucks: The Social Venn-Diagram Café

Caffè Nero – The Deep-Soul Pocket Café

Costa – The Cosy Grounded Living Room Café

My provisional labelling of these coffee-shops’ vibes/auras. I’m being poetic with Caffè Nero but I actually like it a lot less than the other two.

Absolutely not

I answered the question wrong. I meant that I will talk to people in coffee shops but I wouldn't go up to their tables.

Yes because I have a few Asian girlfriends and we either go a restaurant or to a coffee shop as they dont like going into bars

I think he means do you meet friends for a chat in coffee shops? at least that is how I read it

Yh, going up to tables is a bit forward from a more British point of view. But yeah, a bit of chit-chat with the barrister, people in the queue, I totally get that. The lowness of my voice, personally, coupled with the sound of coffee grinding doesn’t exactly lend itself to fluid conversation but if not for that then I’d be more forward doing that with barristers. I already do, but only a little.

Not exactly, tbf. I did mean more interacting with people you don’t know rather than whoever you might come in with.

oh God no, if I go in for a coffee on my own I want to be left alone and I would imagine most people feel like that :laugh:

Yeah, you would do, wouldn’t you? It’s just that some Americans seem to treat coffee-shops as something a bit closer to a social hub (for whatever reason), and it got me wondering.

Americans like to chat. We're very chatty and sociable. Most people just sit in them though and work. There are "usuals" who like to come in and just want to have that human connection while going through the daily grind. Not just coffee shops, it's normal to be chatty with staff as a regular. Even in the city..

There's a donut shop I frequented with toddler and we would sit in the corner by the windows and look at the wildflowers, people walking by. There's another regular who is non-verbal but very friendly that works at the carwash nearby. We have another family member we don't see often who is non-verbal (very weak vocal cords due to neurological disease), so I encourage my daughter to interact with him and she likes to talk about the things we see to people around her telling us what she is discovering. So that helps with her language and social development. We haven't been in a few weeks and I feel bad, but the last thing I need right are donuts and I've been cutting back on caffeine as well. Plus with the heat my daughter is not a huge fan of getting into the car right now.

Out of interest, for those of us who go to coffee shops alone (which in my case per-se is 9 times out 10), and wine-and-dine alone in-general, what kind of tables do you go for? A table for 1, respecting the space and communicating that boundary, or a big four-chaired one, just-because?

A small table.

Neat move.