> it doesn't really function like a cafe in the community sense.
Some do, and those are the ones I frequent. At mid-day and early afternoon it is often very busy with people that hang around for half an hour or more—not just to eat, but to socialize. The amount of first dates I've witnessed (universally older people, often divorced), mothers or fathers with babies or toddlers catching up with a friend, college-aged people having openly-public heated discussions about their sex lives, old biker dudes planning their next trip and going on the wildest tangents about mystery vacations picked by lottery, primary-aged boys arriving by bike to get an iced cappuccino and hang around talking, work colleagues planning a company outing and dissing their other colleagues, etc. is incredible. Dozens and dozens of interactions that I've observed. And I haven't even mentioned the staff yet: the ones nearby me are almost always jovial and are free to discuss things among themselves, plainly audible due to the open kitchen designs, and listening to them is oddly inviting. Also, most of them don't play music, or if they do it's pretty quiet and is not distracting.
Some do, and those are the ones I frequent. At mid-day and early afternoon it is often very busy with people that hang around for half an hour or more—not just to eat, but to socialize. The amount of first dates I've witnessed (universally older people, often divorced), mothers or fathers with babies or toddlers catching up with a friend, college-aged people having openly-public heated discussions about their sex lives, old biker dudes planning their next trip and going on the wildest tangents about mystery vacations picked by lottery, primary-aged boys arriving by bike to get an iced cappuccino and hang around talking, work colleagues planning a company outing and dissing their other colleagues, etc. is incredible. Dozens and dozens of interactions that I've observed. And I haven't even mentioned the staff yet: the ones nearby me are almost always jovial and are free to discuss things among themselves, plainly audible due to the open kitchen designs, and listening to them is oddly inviting. Also, most of them don't play music, or if they do it's pretty quiet and is not distracting.