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One question- how do you know that all of the seats were open originally?

This is a great question. I parked my truck over the lines (taking up 1 1/3 spots) at the bank once. When I came out of the bank, some guy started lambasting me about how rude I was, and blah, blah, blah. He apologized quite profusely after I mentioned the truck that had been in the (now empty) spot to the left which was poorly parked, and had various construction implements hanging over the side. He made an assumption that I'd just rolled in, and parked willy-nilly, when that wasn't the case, at all (and he didn't bother to ask, first).

Many of the responses here seem to have made the same mistake, because they know the background. Couple #2 can't make the assumption that couple #1 is responsible for leaving those one-person gaps. I've seen enough odd-numbered dinner groups, and been in far too many single-person dinner groups that I'd never think couple #1 was rude for leaving empty chairs at a bar.

Speaking of assumptions, I found all the replies quite interesting. Many of them made it sound as though the bar was the sort of bar found in a drinking establishment, or pub -- hence a bunch of talk about hanging out for drinks. My first thought, since Jim mentioned fish, was a sushi place, and I had a quite different idea about the propriety of asking couple #1 to move. Were it a simple matter of someone hopping off a stool, and moving over (and really, only one person in couple 1 would have to move), I'd be more inclined to ask someone to shift over. However, for something like a sushi bar, where the patrons are seated in chairs, I'd be much less willing to interrupt.