More and more we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to cafés. From bustling metropolitan cities to suburban college towns, every kind of neighborhood seems to have more coffee shops popping up. For fans of coffee and specialty coffee in particular, this is obviously wonderful news. Yet, the world of specialty coffee still carries a reputation of being snobbish and impenetrable.
If you’re reading this and you’re still not sure what the expectations are for your visit, allow me to assist you. We at Raj’s Coffee love to visit cafés wherever we might be visiting. And across years of exploring coffee shops, we have arrived at some basic rules of courtesy that go a long way to making your café experience enjoyable for all involved. Here are some pieces of etiquette to follow when you visit your next café.
1. Take Your Headphones Off When Ordering
I (Sam) have a confession: I use my wireless headphones all the time. I use them when I walk to the grocery store, when I’m idling at home, and yes, when I’m on my way to coffee shops. They are amazingly convenient. But whenever I come up to the point of service at a cafe, I take them off.
Even if you are not actively taking a phone call or listening to a podcast, having headphones on increases the chance that you can’t hear your barista talking to you. It sounds a little obvious, but orders go smoothly when both people can understand each other. Giving the employee working the counter your full attention is a nice bit of courtesy. Additionally, it’s best to keep those headphones off while you wait for your order. Picking up your drink right when it’s called ensures that pickup spots don’t get too crowded. And you don’t want to miss your drink!
2. Put Your Headphones On When Playing Your Devices
This tip is something like the inverse of the first. Folks bring their phones and computers into coffee shops all the time. This is all well and good! But if you’re going to be playing music, videos, or a call on your device, use headphones. Coffee shops are communal spaces, and the noise coming from your device can be distracting to other patrons. In fact it can be downright annoying. As a courtesy to everyone else using the space, use headphones or earbuds to listen to something on your own.
3. Bus Your Own Table
The vast majority of coffee shops I have visited do not have a wait staff. I can’t speak to café culture outside of the United States, but the norm in the U.S. is that baristas take your order at a counter. A nice benefit to this system is that customers get to choose their own seating! (More on that in a bit.) But it also brings a responsibility on the customer to bus their own table.
Basically any coffee shop will have a place to deposit dirty dishes. If you’re in doubt, look around the space to find a designated tray. And if you still can’t find one, ask the barista where you should put your dishes. They may direct you to a tray, or they may just take your dishes right there. But they will rarely ask you to leave everything at your seat. Putting all the dirty dishes in the same spot eases the flow of cleanup. So unless you’ve been waited on at your table, go ahead and take an extra second to bus your dishes.
As a side note: Jordan Michaelman and Zachary Carlsen of Sprudge included this rule in their book The New Rules of Coffee: A Modern Guide for Everyone in their “Rules for the Cafe” section. If you’re interested in reading even more guidance on the specialty coffee world, I highly recommend picking it up.
4. Choose Your Seating Based On Your Party/Purpose
Most coffee shops, even the really small ones, will offer a variety of seating options. Just recently, I visited a café that had bar seating, a table with stools, hand-shaped seats next to a coffee table, and stacked wooden bleachers all in the same space! Coffee shops keep a variety of seating because they know that customers will come for different reasons. Some folks may want a spot to read or do remote work from somewhere other than their home. Or they may be meeting a friend, or going on a date. Some may be accompanying their whole family on a coffee pit stop.
Bearing this in mind, it’s considered good courtesy to pick a seat appropriate to your party and purpose. If you’re looking for some solo work time, maybe don’t go for the big group table. Unless it’s a really slow day in the café, chances are good you will have to share the space with others. So when you choose a seat, choose one suited to why you’re there.
5. Don’t Bring Your Pet Inside
This bit of advice involves more than etiquette. Many city health departments forbid pets in food service establishments. This is for three reasons: 1) pets can contaminate food, making it unsafe to eat; 2) a patron with allergies won’t have recourse except to leave; 3) pets can be disruptive or intrusive on a customer’s personal space. For these reasons, a lot of coffee shops will post signage requesting that pets not come inside.
You may be thinking that service animals are allowed in restaurants and cafés, so why can’t pets come inside? Simply put, service animals are not pets. They are “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities,” according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The rule about pets rightly excludes service animals. So unless you have a service animal with you, even if the staff are not actively enforcing this rule, the best thing you can do is to not bring your pet inside, or to leave them at home.
6. If You’re Staying Late, Leave Before Closing Time
Towards the end of the day, a coffee shop’s staff will need to start running through a checklist of tasks: gathering trash, washing the last dishes, closing down brewing machines, etc. When customers stay past the posted closing time, that slows down this process. As a matter of courtesy, plan to leave the shop before the actual closing time. This way, staff can complete their tasks smoothly.
You may not even need a blog to clue you in on this one. Baristas typically give a warning near closing time anywhere from 10-30 minutes out. That’s your reminder to take care of any last business, whether that involves finishing your conference call, saving your document, putting away your dishes, or making your last trip to the restroom. Planning to be finished and out the door before close ensures that employees finish their work in a timely manner.
Conclusion
Rules of etiquette may usually go unspoken, but they go a long way. We at Raj’s Coffee strive in our day-to-day lives to show courtesy and respect to service workers. And that applies as much to coffee shops and baristas as anyone or anyplace else. Not to mention we appreciate when the employees in our own café, Newberry Coffee Company, are shown that same courtesy and respect. Whether you’re trying a new coffee shop for the first time or already a regular at your favorite spot, I hope that these tips for coffee shop etiquette help you and the staff who serve you have a wonderful visit.