Café etiquette: Is it rude to ask to sit at a table with strangers?

November 7, 2026 — 5:00amQ: I was waiting for a take-away coffee at my local cafe following a two-kilometre morning walk. A couple sat at a table with a spare chair. Feeling exhausted, I asked if I could sit on the spare chair while waiting for my coffee. They gave me a horrified look. Was I wrong to ask? R.C., Kirribilli, NSW Photo: Drew AitkenA: Kirribilli is a posh, flashy suburb where the Prime Minister and Governor-General and lots of celebrities have homes, so your local cafe was probably packed with posh, flashy, celebrity types (with one of the lesser-successful Hemsworth brothers working as a barista and the least-successful Hemsworth brother as a dish-hand).Kirribilli is also a famously hilly suburb, so I’m guessing you would’ve been pretty dishevelled and sweaty after your two-kilometre morning walk – and when you asked this couple if you could sit on their spare chair, you may have been puffing heavily, blowing hot, fetid air onto their truffle-butter buckwheat porridge.Danny Katz is a columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He writes the Modern Guru column in the Good Weekend magazine. He is also the author of the books Spit the Dummy, Dork Geek Jew and the Little Lunch series for kids.From our partners