please empty your brain below

Ditto x 15!
I’d go further than that: I pity those poor cafe-goers.
The only cafe I go to is my work cafe for lunch, as I live at home with parents so making my own lunch I'd tricky.

I rarely consume tea or coffee at a cafe unless meeting my friends who work elsewhere and this is once every two months.

My partner and I gave up going to the cafe and have for coffee and tea and haven't looked back since. We still eat out together, but we often look for reduced items,such as boots reducing their sandwiches to 50p. We never go to restaurants, we prefer the park.
Thank goodness for a certain supermarket that provides free tea or coffee, along with a newspaper.

Since they set up where I live, I've saved a fortune in both time and money.
A cafe is neutral territory, plus it may be more convenient than meeting at someone else's house, for example mothers will dump their offspring at the nursery then go for a coffee afterwards, they can also be useful alternative work spaces or meeting areas (alcohol polices mean using pubs for 'meetings' is a bit of a no-no nowadays).

However if you are someone who likes your own company, then a visit to a cafe is largely pointless, especially as most of their offerings will not be done the way you like them done.
I wonder if the aversion to nibbles and drinks came from the DG "not really a diet, just eat based on today's weight" diet, or has it always been that way?
it's possible to take a utilitarian viewpoint too far e.g. why bother paying to sit in a hall hearing patterns of sounds when i could put on a CD/Spotify, why am I eating this expensive french cuisine when I could subsist on beans on toast, why do we have these unproductive areas of grass and ornamental gardens in the middle of London when they could be providing housing or space for new businesses, why am I going on holiday to New York when everything it provides has some counterpart in London....
I prefer the pub for all that social stuff and don't mind a pint and a paper on my own now and then.

Teabags? Really? That's common, tsk.
The latest thermos flasks you can easily drink from are ideal for rucksack tripping.
My choice of ground coffee prepared in a plunger at home is invariably tastier than the stuff commercial outlets sell.
Plus I get to call it "white coffee" Just having one now...
I think I spot a return of the cafés ~ company ~ commitment metaphor.

Wasn't it simply aversion to coffee that was used previously?
For me, being out and about on your own makes sitting in a cafe an awkward experience if you have no one to be with, talk to etc. I'll happily go to a cafe with the missus, but if I'm on my own then pub or cafe I'd avoid. Isn't it amazing how much museums/cultural institutions put so much value on their eating/drinking experiences? I know people who when asked what a museum is like they'll say 'it's great, it's got a really nice cafe!' Mind you walking around museums can be one of the most exhausting experiences, leaving you feeling wiped out and in need of sustenance, perhaps that part of their ruse to get you in the cafe spending ££...
It must be the company we seek. I haven't seen any start up companies offering to deliver a cup of coffee and a slice of cake to my front door.
I don't drink tea or coffee so avoiding cafe's is particularly easy for me, but like you, I can go all day with little more than a sip of squash in the morning!
I do however stop for a sandwich lunch most times, though I'd be equally happy with bringing my own from home, or nothing at all if I'm trying to cram a lot into my time!

Sometimes I think you must be my brother leading a double life. He too lives alone in London, he is exactly one month younger than you and his marriage also ended 18 years ago! If you frequently visited Cornwall instead of Norfolk I'd be seriously spooked!
DG
Apart from from your slightly plaintive post I had to laugh at the phrase "before the bar scene fires up". Quite sweet
I, on the other hand, am weak to them. Or even anything approaching them.
I'm pretty sure a lot of people choose to meet anyone of slight acquaintance in a café as opposed to anywhere else as it is neutral territory. Likewise, some people will want to get out of their particular set of 4 walls to escape e.g. mountains of housework, office work, office meetings, angry spouse, screaming kids, ennui, the cold, the desert of loneliness, and much more. A pub/bar is often not a suitable alternative.
If i feel the need for company then i go straight dahn the pub as that is where i find it easiest to strike up conversation (even if it tends to be banal. Doesn't matter, contact is all) Cafes involve sitting at a table which necessarily isolates you from others.
I don't like coffee much, but if I have to go to a cafe I'll drink it rather than tea, because I care about tea and you're right, cafes can't do tea.
If you read a packet of tea it tells you to let it go off the boil.

I saw a documentary about a jumbo jet rebuild, and the catering manager mentioned that and said aeroplane tea water is kept at 85° (and not just because of the low pressure).
@Sarah,
I don't really like coffee either, but I can't bear to pay more than say 50p for a cup of tea and UK cafes very rarely have any other interesting drinks.
DG seems to have cornered the market in the penny-pinching audience, unless the effects of austerity/Brexit have accelerated substantially.

There are many cafes that can provide very good quality tea/infusions etc (even Starbucks' tea range is acceptable - shock horror).
Joho,

No. Just no. You have to scald the leaves to brew tea properly. And warm your pot or mug with boiling water beforehand.

Airline tea is no advertisement for 85 degrees. "A beverage almost, but not completely, unlike tea"
It's probably para 6 where we most differ. If I make a trip somewhere I rarely do much spending, but would probably leave feeling guilty if my contribution to the local economy was flat zero. A café - preferably a small, local one - is usually the easiest answer.
I've often wondered why I love going to cafes so much. I just like the atmosphere I guess. A pub doesn't do it for me, I was brought up by parents to whom a pub was almost a den of iniquity and certainly no place for an unaccompanied female.
Great song that "I am a rock, I am an island" plus who wants to get ripped off with overpriced tea and cakes.
We all have out quirks. I like eating out yet I feel the need for value. And so I restrict how much I drink unless it's a special event. My main point of examination on the menu is the starter or the dessert. A complex size/price/complexity venn diagram forms As I balance the price under £4, I might as well take a gamble and won't be too fussed if its just been bought in and sliced. Over £6 it better be made on sight and/or complex.

This is course is the best reason to watch the waiters bring out the food and trying to guess which ones are the nice looking ones and have decent portions.

Basically I refuse to pay a fiver for a sliver of cheescake and a squirt of cream.
There are so many of them too. Outside London or in the London suburbs, a typical high street might have half-a-dozen or more (plus the usual Estate agents, a bank or building society, a couple of betting shops and money-lenders, and a lot of charity shops) often outnumbering real shops. I am amazed that they make any money. There are quite a few people in on their own, not at all in a hurry, mostly on their laptops. The cup on their table is more likely empty than full.
I get the point of a cafe being neutral territory to meet someone.

Except why on earth do you want neutral territory? I'd much prefer to be invited to someone's home - never mind if it's full of kids, dogs, squalor or oppressive neatness. Or to invite them to mine (which may involve similar issues, but who cares?).

No, the only people I meet in a cafe or pub (unless we are remote from both homes) are those who refuse to contemplate any sort of home visit. Sadly, there seem to be many such people, though.
when I explored the Underground system (ends of lines and other interesting areas) I used to get a can of Diet Coke to drink on the train home, thus avoiding the need to sit in a pub/cafe.
An earlier commenter mentioned the song 'I am a Rock' and I've always regarded that as one of my theme songs. Some of us simply prefer our own company.
Thanks for an enjoyable and interesting post. Previously, the only cafes I would use were “greasy spoons”. I recall one when I worked nights in High Wycombe and was waiting for the train back home in the morning, that a fry-up with bottomless tea cup was just what I required. The tea was even very acceptable, which is rare. I have a blanket rule, excepting such an establishment, of never paying for tea as it wil be a disappointment.

The pub was always the place for socialising or meeting acquaintances, but since moving to a country that does not do pubs in a way that I understand them, I have resorted to cafes as the alternative, often for a breakfast catch-up.

I nearly never enter them spontaneously.
Perhaps there is an element of nurture here. When I was young... (before plastic bottles of water had been invented, when you'd never take a kid into a pub, and when cafes were invariably greasy spoons, foggy with cigarette smoke)... it was quite normal go for hours without a drink or snack, give or take a special treat in the afternoon if we had been particularly active and there was an ice-cream van handy. Now we are told to get through 2 litres a day and it's become normal to have a bottle to hand just in case. I'm still happy to wait for the next proper mealtime.

The increase in cafes has the useful benefit of making many previously dead or un-social urban spaces into sociable spaces. I remember how London felt quite cold and dead compared to the active spaces in European cities. How things have changed.
Another "oh heck I'm really like DG" article. I can't remember the last time I went to a cafe or a fast food outlet. I may grab a cheap sandwich from a supermarket if I'm out and about but I won't go in a cafe.

I also object to the prices quoted in some many places. They're outrageous even if you allow for all the costs you set out. Also, like you, I can and do survive on my own perfectly well with little human contact. I can't really comprehend why people need to spend hours in cafes or yatter away on their phones for hours on end or have to speak to people on a daily basis or else panic sets in.
We now expect DG to report whether a café offers a Pot of Tea for One.

dg writes: The Walthamstow Wetlands cafe offers a Pot of Tea For One. It'd no doubt be as vile as the Pot of Tea For Two.










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