Call into empty cafe with dignitary - that's awkward (12)
I believe the answer is:
cringeworthy
'awkward' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'call into empty cafe with dignitary' is the wordplay.
'call' becomes 'ring' (telephone call).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'empty cafe with' becomes 'ce' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dignitary' becomes 'worthy' (I've seen this before).
'ring' placed into 'ce' is 'cringe'.
'cringe'+'worthy'='CRINGEWORTHY'
'that's' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cringeworthy that I've seen before include "Severely embarrassing" , "Causing embarrassment" , "Acutely embarrassing" .)