What a café table is for
Laptops, lunches, first dates, and job interviews all share the same small square of wood. A morning spent watching them take turns.
The café has eleven tables and, on a weekday morning, at least four uses for each of them. Between eight and noon I counted a job interview, two tutoring sessions, a man doing his accounts with a pencil, and a first date that ended with both people swapping books.
The owner has one rule: if you are staying more than an hour, buy something every hour. It is written on a card by the till and nobody seems to mind it, perhaps because it is the only rule.
The size is the point
Each table is sixty centimetres square, small enough that two strangers will not share one and large enough for a laptop and a plate. The owner chose them after a year of watching larger tables sit half-empty while people queued.
By noon, the laptops pack up without being asked. Lunch is a different room, even if it is the same room.