I think in Europe a “cafe” means it serves more than coffee and tea, ie, alcohol, light food, etc. Thats my perception at least. Straight coffee shops in the US are different.

Every coffee shop I’ve been to in DC has seating. If seats are in short supply, it’s because the coffee shop is very popular or people have been taking up tables for hours.

Totally. But in Europe, a lot of coffee shops want you to sit and enjoy your espresso, and then leave. Then the table is there for other people. Not to camp out all day off of a single coffee.

I think that vibe is a relic of like, 2004. Now everyone has laptops and wi-fi and so can entertain themselves all day puttering around online.

I don’t think it’s any different in other American cities honestly. The era of bringing your laptop and sitting there for hours taking up tables off of a $8 bill is over it seems, and I think that’s a good thing.(Maman in Georgetown is a notable exception, I guess because of GU students.) The tables should be taken up for a shorter period of time so others can use them.

If you want to camp out for hours, there are many Starbucks around DC that will let you do that.

I think it’s poor form to camp out for hours and hours off of a $10 bill so that no one else can sit. On the weekend Georgetown is crowded so it’s difficult to get a seat at any coffee shop.

As a default, cafes shouldn’t be a WeWork.

Yes precisely, that’s not how it works in the restaurant industry so people should stop acting like not paying tip, or paying small tip, is justified and noble. It’s not. It’s just cheap.

Yes I’m a chat GPT bot using servers paid for by service workers. You got me.

Yes, I’m paid by service industry workers out of their 20% mandatory tips to be an advocate for the practice generally. You got me.

Those jobs aren’t tipped. Restaurant jobs are. It is what it is.

I care when people are being intentionally cheap and stingy, yeah. It bothers me.

Yes, and you'll eat that mandatory 20% tip if it's applied so that workers dealing with the apparently large numbers of cheap and angry DC diners can be adequately paid.

It's not the same tip. You aren't getting drinks etc. so your tab is generally significantly smaller with a pickup order.

Bro, this is America. It does.

I don't understand why the labor of people dealing with pickup orders (of which there are a lot more now) is worth nothing, or $1 or whatever. People really do love to save a little money.

Is the labor of workers at Thip Khao dealing with hordes of pickup orders worth nothing to you?

You said, "A lot of service industry staff make out like bandits" which is definitely not correct.

So you would be fine with a big "pickup fee" to account for workers dealing with pickup orders? I'm sure many angry people on Reddit would be posting about that.

My office job also is not as violent as "entering UFC cage" but I'm still paid for my work. Who cares?

I don’t think the service industry is full of rich people, no. Get real.

~*~awareness~*~

I don't actually work in the service in the industry. That's why I'm so annoyed about this. People posting in this thread are white-collar workers coming up with reasons to be cheap (but still enjoy the fruits of DC's restaurant scene). In my office job, my weekly pay isn't determined by the completely arbitrary whims of other people. My boss doesn't make up rules to avoid paying.

My guy you have no basis for saying that.

The people dealing with hordes of pickup orders are not…working?

This is a totally made-up metric. Why do the people dealing with the hordes of angry pickup orders (“where is my pizza???”) deserve less money?