How Restaurants Got So Loud (theatlantic.com) 233
An anonymous reader shares a report: Other sounds that reach 70 decibels include freeway noise, an alarm clock, and a sewing machine. But it's still quiet for a restaurant. Others I visited in Baltimore and New York City while researching this story were even louder: 80 decibels in a dimly lit wine bar at dinnertime; 86 decibels at a high-end food court during brunch; 90 decibels at a brewpub in a rehabbed fire station during Friday happy hour. Restaurants are so loud because architects don't design them to be quiet. Much of this shift in design boils down to changing conceptions of what makes a space seem upscale or luxurious, as well as evolving trends in food service. Right now, high-end surfaces connote luxury, such as the slate and wood of restaurants including The Osprey in Brooklyn or Atomix in Manhattan.
This trend is not limited to New York. According to Architectural Digest, mid-century modern and minimalism are both here to stay. That means sparse, modern decor; high, exposed ceilings; and almost no soft goods, such as curtains, upholstery, or carpets. These design features are a feast for the eyes, but a nightmare for the ears. No soft goods and tall ceilings mean nothing is absorbing sound energy, and a room full of hard surfaces serves as a big sonic mirror, reflecting sound around the room. The result is a loud space that renders speech unintelligible. Now that it's so commonplace, the din of a loud restaurant is unavoidable. That's bad for your health -- and worse for the staff who works there. But it also degrades the thing that eating out is meant to culture: a shared social experience that rejuvenates, rather than harms, its participants.
This trend is not limited to New York. According to Architectural Digest, mid-century modern and minimalism are both here to stay. That means sparse, modern decor; high, exposed ceilings; and almost no soft goods, such as curtains, upholstery, or carpets. These design features are a feast for the eyes, but a nightmare for the ears. No soft goods and tall ceilings mean nothing is absorbing sound energy, and a room full of hard surfaces serves as a big sonic mirror, reflecting sound around the room. The result is a loud space that renders speech unintelligible. Now that it's so commonplace, the din of a loud restaurant is unavoidable. That's bad for your health -- and worse for the staff who works there. But it also degrades the thing that eating out is meant to culture: a shared social experience that rejuvenates, rather than harms, its participants.
Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
Earplugs and text each other across the table.
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Re:Simple solution (Score:4, Insightful)
I was thinking along similar lines.
It seems today with the younger crowd, that dining out has virtually NOTHING to do with 'shared experience' at all.
I've observed more than a few times, a couple that was obviously out on a date.
Yet, rather than spending the time talking and getting to know one another...the were on their fscking phones texting and doing social media. I swear I never observed hardly a second when they both had their phones down and actually conversed and interacted with one another.
And these places were not so loud that you couldn't talk.
Sad, I think our last couple generations have let the devices ruin actual, real meatspace human interactions. How do you actually get to know a potential mate if you don't even talk to them? Geez, how do the young guys today get laid, if they don't have at least some gift of gab? And on the flip side, how do they use it on women if the girls also have their faces constantly buried in the phone?
sad.
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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While we were there, I was in full view of a family where the teenage son spent the entire meal on his phone reading posts under the table - Snap, Insta, FB, whatever, I couldn't tell and don't care.
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Interesting)
While we were there, I was in full view of a family where the teenage son spent the entire meal on his phone reading posts under the table - Snap, Insta, FB, whatever, I couldn't tell and don't care. I was frankly shocked. I get that you have to pick your battles as a parent, but damn, Thanksgiving dinner is a hill worth dying on. Neither parent had a phone out, so far as I could see, so they certainly had grounds to quarrel with him.
I have a friend who has a teenage daughter with severe Asperger's. They were in town a few years ago for Comic-Con and I took them out to dinner. Her daughter spent most of her time on her smartphone as it was the only way she could handle being in a public social setting like that. (She did better at Comic-Con because she was dressed up in costume and, I believe, "not herself".) She and I did talk a little, whenever she was ready, and we all had a pretty good time. When I dropped them off at their hotel, her daughter hugged me goodbye, which surprised her mom, who said she had never seen her do that w/o being prompted.
Maybe things were different with the kid you saw, but keep an open mind going forward ...
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Yet, rather than spending the time talking and getting to know one another...the were on their fscking phones texting and doing social media. I swear I never observed hardly a second when they both had their phones down and actually conversed and interacted with one another.
What are you talking about. They were probably talking to each other on facebook.
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How do you actually get to know a potential mate if you don't even talk to them?
It is probably the other way around. They never learned how to talk to a stranger, especially opposite sex. And being able to chat is a revelation for them.
I would not wonder if the couples you see would share stories on social media with each other while they are sitting there.
Keeps people from overhearing your convos too. (Score:2, Interesting)
Which people often forget was a major source of gossip in the restaurants of old.
This is really correlation not causation though. The major reasons for the changes mentioned are simple:
ADA
Fire Safety
Sanitation/Inspections.
ADA requires larger spaces to accomodate wheelchairs. Gone are the old timey tight spaces where once a heavyset American would have a hard time squeezing by.
Fire Safety has lead to all possible flammable objects being removed or reduced.
Sanitation has lead to stainless-only tableware, a ha
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Earplugs and text each other across the table.
I'll never forget a business meeting dinner we once had at Spagos at the Ceasar's Palace mall many years ago. It was during either COMDEX or Interop. This was before text messaging was available.
Sitting there at a table near the center of the room was like sitting at the exhaust of a jet engine at half throttle. I have no idea how the waiters and waitresses performed their functions but each order had to be shouted three times. No meaningful discussion took place because it just wasn't possible.
N
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Earplugs and text each other across the table.
Even easier: takeout.
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There are multiple restaurants in my area that I won't go to any more because the noise levels are so high you can't have a conversation.
Recently I also experienced the weird situation of being able to clearly hear a conversation going on two tables away while simultaneously not being able to clearly hear what was happening at my own table. Some strange setup with the acoustics was reflecting that conversation at the other table right to where I was sitting.
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Some strange setup with the acoustics was reflecting that conversation at the other table right to where I was sitting. Likely true, but also possible: you saw their mouthes move and your brain stiched it together.
Re: Simple solution (Score:2, Offtopic)
There is nothing wrong with trying to solve a problem, but border control is as effective as pixie dust. The solution is to set realistic standards that convince the people trying to get in to meet those standards. If the requirements seem unachievable or overly complicated, people will lose hope in ever achieving them and therefore choosing to circumvent them instead.
If you set the requ
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... And history shows that border walls do work (unless you're a 1930's frenchman).
France didn't have any walls where the Germans attacked so the lesson is not to trust allies. The Maginot line held as intended however it was a bit more complex than most border walls.
Border walls doesn't work in the modern world.
Table Turnover (Score:5, Informative)
No more drinks and conversation. Eat and move out, so the next group can come in.
Table turnover is one of the key metrics for profitability.
Re:Table Turnover (Score:5, Insightful)
Table turnover is one of the key metrics for profitability.
No 1 reason why the American dining experience is utterly crap.
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No more drinks and conversation. Eat and move out, so the next group can come in.
Table turnover is one of the key metrics for profitability.
Anonymous Cowards are such romantics...
I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Insightful)
I avoid loud restaurants; I'm sure I'm not the only one. They may look nice, and maybe their looks attract more people than their loudness scares off; but, I do take note if a place is too loud and I don't return- so there is a downside to being loud, they do lose some customers... unless I'm just a unique freak.
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they do lose some customers... unless I'm just a unique freak.
Loudness is due to the restaurant having many customers. So maybe they don't lose customers..
Re:I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Interesting)
No it's not. It's a result of most interior designers not having a clue about acoustics.
At work, our offices were redone by a high-priced interior design firm. Most of our conference rooms were done in all hard surfaces, granite tables, wood floors, high ceilings, the works. They were also so acoustically noisy that people would have to yell in order for the person across the table from you to understand what they were saying. Some rooms were so bad that it was physically painful for me to be in the room due to the sound reflections. The high ambient noise also wreaked havoc with our conference phones. Callers would frequently complain that they coudn't understand anything we said. The rooms looked great, but utterly failed in their purpose of facilitating communications.
After a year of pushing, I finally got them to allow me to have a local acoustical tile manufacturer install sound dampening tiles in one conference room. The boss was so impressed with the results that he got the remaining 6 rooms done within the next two months.
Re: I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Funny)
The takeaway is never hire a designer for a space meant for a practical reason. The designer will be too busy checking brand names and the latest fads to have time to address any actual issues of design. Hire efficiency engineers or similar instead. Tell the inevitable prick who whines about the work environment because he doesn't recognize the brand name of your furniture that you went for mid 20th century brutalist design and he needs to expand his design horizons.
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When I bought my house, I gave in to my parents and sister who insisted that
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Re:I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Funny)
"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." -Yogi Berra
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That dude's simple genius makes so much sense it hurts. It's why I go to everyone else's funeral, so they'll come to mine.
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Not really in my experience. It's also the fucking music that keeps blaring from all speakers. Allegedly to "drown the noise" the people make. Which only results in people talking (or even yelling) louder so they can hear each other over the goddamn music!
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And in point of fact, it seems as though they make cavernous, echoy spaces on purpose, because it seems to attract quite a few people-- or it used to, it'd be nice if people are getting sick of it.
I developed a theory in the 90s when this trend seemed to really get going that what was going on is that a lot of yuppies are people who actually enjoyed high school, and they were trying to re-capture the old school
Re:I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Insightful)
Agree. Have walked out of restaurants for being too loud. No sense not being able to talk to each other while paying $200/person for a meal. While table density plays a role, the biggest issue is architects simply not caring about acoustics. It is a shame too, as it isn’t that hard to make a space functional without disrupting the “look.” A good acoustical consultant can do wonders for making a space bearable.
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Or just lives somewhere different to you.
I've been places where $20 of crap junk food would still leave you hungry, and I've been other places where I doubt you could even get through $20 worth of high quality chef-prepared food.
Where I live at the moment for example, I'd expect around €25 per person for a "normal" restaurant (including a beer or wine with the meal) and up to €100 per person for a really high-quality place.
I could also however jump in my car, and in less than two hours be somewher
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A big part of the reason I can easily afford $200 for a meal is because I would never pay $200 for a meal.
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It depends a lot on the atmosphere. (Disclaimer, I live in Europe) I would never eat in a pub, or sportsbar. For me a bar or pub is for drinking, not eating.
I have been in loud restaurants where the atmosphere was extremely nice. I also have been in quiet places, where I felt as if I was at a funeral. Terrible.
The dutch have a word for it "Geroezemoes". It means background noise, murmur, buzz and (not or) chatter. This can be almost silent, but also pretty loud.
It absolutely depends on the mood I am in and the place. e.g. try to imagine a beerhall in Germany to be quiet. It would be depressing.
I personally would walk away from too quiet mor than from too loud. That does not mean I like people shouting all the time. There are better places for that and I enjoy those as well. Just not to eat.
Yes, the opposite extreme can be bad too. One of my favourite Indian restaurants is always dead- almost no one in there and extremely quiet (Indian restaurants never seem to be very busy in the US- Americans have a weird phobia about Indian food). The problem with this one restaurant is I always feel very self-conscious when talking BECAUSE it is so quiet and I feel like the two other customers and the staff can all overhear what I'm saying... not that I'm saying anything they shouldn't hear- I'm just a p
Re: I avoid loud restaurants (Score:2, Troll)
You mean like asians have a phobia of dairy?
Americans don't have a phobia of Indian food, they have a completely rational distase for food that doesn't digest properly.
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they have a completely rational distase for food that doesn't digest properly.
And why would any food, any nation or any culture on this planet is cooking, not be "digested properly"?
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That's weird. I know of 9 Indian restaurants in the surrounding area (Boulder Colorado) that I've been to that are generally moderately full of people but not very noisy; other than the Indian TV on in the corner :) One of the best, Yak and Yeti down in Westminster, moved from their smaller fast food looking place to the main mall (the Nepal place in Estes Park and the Indian place in Nederland are the three best in the area).
[John]
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Indian restaurants never seem to be very busy in the US- Americans have a weird phobia about Indian food
Avoiding a restaurant where all the food tastes like various forms of swamp mud is a not a phobia.
I am a very food-curious person. I like to taste food from every culture I encounter. . . but, Indian hasn't made my list of "try this again".
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Plenty of restaurants go out of business. Even popular ones. Popularity has little to do with restaurant longevity. Real estate is by far the bigger concern.
A shitty restaurant no one goes to will stay there forever if they own the building and lot, or are friends with / fucking whoever does.
A restaurant that's too successful will often draw extra attention from whomever owns the building or lot. They'll get hit with huge rent increases and all their success will be bled away.
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Obviously if Indian food wasnâ(TM)t popular the restaurants would be out of business.,.think more and post less.
They do. They open and 6 months later they're closed. (perhaps you should "think more and post less")
The one I was referencing though has been open a long time now, several years, I suspect it gets busier in the evening; I only go for lunch.
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I think you do not appreciate the scope of the problem in the US. Within walking distance from work, I can think of at least 5 trendy restaurants (just of the ones I frequent) that are done in all metal, wood, and cement. Cement floors. Cement columns. Cement ceilings. Wood, metal, or some kind of engineered laminate furniture. The only cloth will be the seat cushions, if they exist. A quarter full at lunch and they are already loud. Fill them up with the dinner crowds and they are unbearable.
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The right setting and atmosphere matter. No doubt. Your examples are pretty good, nobody wants to sit in a deathly silent sports bar, but there's a limit to what's acceptable as background noise. Good bars know how to kill sound to keep the noise in the background where it causes atmosphere instead of annoyance.
Re:I avoid loud restaurants (Score:5, Interesting)
I avoid loud restaurants; I'm sure I'm not the only one. They may look nice, and maybe their looks attract more people than their loudness scares off; but, I do take note if a place is too loud and I don't return- so there is a downside to being loud, they do lose some customers... unless I'm just a unique freak.
Not unique at all. I'm functionally rather deaf, with loud tinnitus and a lot of holes in my hearing. One of the features of this kind of deafness is that if I'm sitting in a fairly quiet room, I can hear and understand most conversation. But in a loud place, I can't hear anything but noise. A weird thing - people with my kind of deafness process all sounds the same, whereas people with normal hearing have brains that can select what should be listened to.
Does this cost business? I think so. Who would want to go to say, Olive Garden for a business lunch or dinner? Especially when a fair number of the folks in leadership positions have hearing issues like mine. In our locale, we've found a nice cafe that manages to not sound like a foundry , and provide them with a lot of business.
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Re:I avoid loud restaurants (Score:4, Funny)
Olive Garden is cheap, especially on weekdays at lunch.
The breadsticks are great (because they're fucking warm garlic breadsticks) and some of the soups are decent. Fuck salad.
They have a couple of pasta dishes I like, but they're nothing special. But by the time the actual food comes, who cares? You should be 3 baskets of breadsticks deep at that point, asking the server to just grate the cheese into your mouth because you won't be using your arms any more.
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You should be 3 baskets of breadsticks deep at that point, asking the server to just grate the cheese into your mouth because you won't be using your arms any more.
Har!, the visualization on that is great.
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Forget "for a business meal", why would you want to go there at all? Olive Garden is one of those places you go to because you're in the middle of nowhere, the TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews of area restaurants are all obvious shill crap, and you don't want to die of food poisoning. It's mediocre food at a semi-premium price. I'd honestly rather eat at Waffle House or IHOP.
My mentioning Olive Garden is an example of a loud restaurant, not necessarily a good one. I do like their eggplant parmesan though. Just not enough to go back any more, because of the noise.
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why would you want to go there at all? Olive Garden is one of those places ... ... It's mediocre food at a semi-premium price. I'd honestly rather eat at Waffle House or IHOP.
Me too, but it's not just Olive Garden, it's most Italian restaurants nowadays. It's hard to find an Italian restaurant that makes something better than I can at home. Honestly, I typically avoid Italian restaurants because most Italian food is fairly easy to make and the quality I get from making it at home is much better than what I get at restaurants. I suspect the majority of Italian restaurants must do what the majority of Chinese restaurants do now- just buy premade meals in bulk and heat them up.
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I avoid loud restaurants; I'm sure I'm not the only one. They may look nice, and maybe their looks attract more people than their loudness scares off; but, I do take note if a place is too loud and I don't return- so there is a downside to being loud, they do lose some customers... unless I'm just a unique freak.
Plus, those loud trendy places (like the kind of place that would use a refurbed fire station) tend to have food that is, while decent, also usually over-priced and proportionately small. If I'm eating it's because I don't want to cook (unless I'm eating korean bbq) or want something I can't cook/cook well, and since I know eating out is always more expensive than cooking at home, I want my money's worth. So I stay away from loud trendy places (bonus points for not having to deal with a server with a hand
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I am reading your
to mean that you can cook Korean BBQ, but sometimes prefer to let someone else do it for you. If this reading is correct, then that means you can actually cook, which gives you more options on a given evening than those who can't or who fear what's good enough for them may not be good enough for others.
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I am reading your
to mean that you can cook Korean BBQ, but sometimes prefer to let someone else do it for you. If this reading is correct, then that means you can actually cook, which gives you more options on a given evening than those who can't or who fear what's good enough for them may not be good enough for others.
You're misreading. I prefer cooking my own food, but there are plenty of nights where I am either 1. too lazy/tired to cook/clean up, or 2. want something that I cannot satisfactorily or easily fix myself. Korean BBQ is an exception to #1 because cooking your meat at the table is half the point; however I try not to eat that too often because me and all you can eat do not go well together, as like I said I like to get my money's worth. I literally was hungover the next day after eating at a Brazilian ste
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I think this is not only loss of civility. Libraries have become much more community locations. Places to go meet with people. And, children's areas are like small playrooms. My son spends most of his time there playing while I get him books to take home.
Re: Loss of civility (Score:2)
If you want quiet, check the book out.
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I've noticed even in university libraries people talk out loud, eat and drink.
Probably the important word there is "University". At that age, people are either just past "peak rowdiness" or still in it. People tend to notice how they impact other people a little better as they get older.
Feedback (Score:2)
There's a pretty good bar right around the corner from us that
Seems to be a trend (Score:2)
Some of it is to save money and practicality in addition to design choices. For example, many recent newer places I've visited don't have carpet or rugs and opt for tile or concrete because it is cheaper and easier to clean. On the other spectrum, some restaurants have started to use glass tile/wood for the walls instead of drywall and paint.
A growing trend with some places is the open kitchen. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, kitchens are loud and were never designed to be quiet. But back in the day,
Acoustic baffling can be made to look modern, too (Score:5, Informative)
You can buy a variety of acoustic baffling and other sound treatment that looks sleek and modern. In the end, it's just the restaurant being cheap and confusing noise with liveliness. To be fair, a lot of customers do the latter, too.
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Yes and one could go on about how most people don't know shit from quality these days.... one may be right even but what gets me is that in this time where about every niche idea seems to prosper, pure quality (without the added and often fake sense of luxury) seems hard to find.
Perhaps I'm just googling wrong.
Re:Acoustic baffling can be made to look modern, t (Score:5, Insightful)
You can buy a variety of acoustic baffling and other sound treatment that looks sleek and modern. In the end, it's just the restaurant being cheap ...
Cheap and ignorant of the problem. I have, personally, attempted to quiet the equivalent of a loud bar: a conference poster session in absolute worst-case acoustic conditions of hard surfaces and an arched ceiling that concentrated noise. The noise absorbing panels cost a total of $3000, delivered at about $100 per panel, two dozen of them, plus shipping. They took the punishingly-loud situation down through very loud, to merely loud --- with 100 people all talking together in a confined space, you can't do much better than that. The panels are sleek, would look good in any modern decor, and, mounted on the ceiling, are entirely unobtrusive.
So we aren't talking a ton of money, which means the restaurant and bar owners are indeed, being either ignorant, naive, cheap, or some combination of those three.
idiot restaurant owners (Score:4, Insightful)
Not much later she went out of business. Gee, I wonder why.
OT: I misclicked your rating (Score:2, Offtopic)
I'm posting this dummy text because when I post in a thread my moderation points that I just used here are removed. I accidentally downvoted when I wanted to upvote. Why can't Slashdot give me the option to change my moderation, like any other website does that allows voting on comments?
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I don't think it's only the TVs or bad acoustics in many places though that certainly is a large factor. People in general used to conversely more politely and quietly at the table so as not to disturb other patrons, but it only takes a handful of loudmouths and the kind of people that insist the next country over can hear them when they laugh constantly, sitting at a few tables, to up the whole noise level to a din.
Re:idiot restaurant owners (Score:4, Funny)
Look up the word facetious in a dictionary. That's the big book that tells what all the big words mean.
Re:idiot restaurant owners (Score:5, Funny)
This is probably one reason why so many people (Score:5, Interesting)
are now ordering their food delivered. I find going to most restaurants about as pleasant as going to a shopping mall. Ugh!
Coffee shops are usually pretty quiet, if only because they are smaller and fewer people fit into them.
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No, it's because people are more lazy and have become more introverted avoiding social situations. There's also that MMORPG thing I have to get back to.
Not just the acoustics of the room (Score:5, Interesting)
People want to have what they say heard. As the background noise goes up, they talk louder. That brings the background noise level up for others, so they talk louder,
For years, our company held an employee Christmas party at a steak house. The last two years, though, we employees said forget it... the noise level was too high to socialize, even though we all loved the food.
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People want to have what they say heard. As the background noise goes up, they talk louder. That brings the background noise level up for others, so they talk louder,
Yes, this has really nothing whatsoever to do with the materials used and everything to do with loud fuckfaces. I am constantly stunned at how loud people are in restaurants. This country is jam-packed with narcissists and the world would be better off if it tipped over and everyone fell into the ocean.
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I can remember when there wasn't much difference.
*sigh*
On the other hand... (Score:2)
It's not the restaurants, it's the people. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, while the acoustics of a lot of restaurants leave much to be desired it's really the self-absorbed patrons and staff. You see we like to think we're all in our own world while eating out but the thing is your conversation levels tend to be a bit loud. People when they're going out and eating with others tend to be a little more boisterous anyway, hey they're having a good time right? Because your conversation is above a normal tone, the folks text to you can't hear their conversation. To compensate, they retaliate subconsciously and talk louder too. It especially gets bad with large groups with more than 4 people or with families / groups with kids under the age of 7 are seated nearby. Restaurants/bars et. al. could do us a favor by putting up some noise dampening material but that still won't fix the loud obnoxious clods two tables over who are in their own little world.
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Restaurants as far as I can remember have always had booths, tables that can be joined together etc. Hell the prototypical diner with a long counter is one big open room with lots of sound reflecting surfaces. I'll grant you that materials selection/design could help but it's more to do with peoples' attitudes that are the big culprit here.
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nope, it's purely design.
we have some nice quiet 50+ year old restaurants around here. all the surfaces absorb sound
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Nope. It's the design. We want you to sit down, eat your damned food and get out. So we can turn that table over a few more times per night. The hell with you people who just sit there and engage in long conversations.
Restaurants or places to eat (Score:4, Interesting)
If I go to a sports bar, I expect certain levels of noise from the patrons and screens (although most of the screens have closed captioning turned on)
If I go out for dinner, I'd like to be able to hold a conversation with the people at my table, and not hear people 10 tables away. Older, more expensive places usually are much quieter.
One of the places I used to like was quiet to medium loud, but they completely overhauled and expanded the place.
Next time I went in, you couldn't hear the person talking next to you. The new decor included a huge glass cupola which acted like a sound magnifier. It was so loud, I was wondering if there were some sound canceling technology that they could install.
Televisions Kill Conversation (Score:2)
Around here, it's become almost impossible to find a restaurant without televisions. They're worse than loud noise for killing conversation. I remember the look of shock on the manager's face after eating one night when he asked how our meal was, and we said we were never eating there again because of the televisions.
A vote for acoustic panels (Score:2)
I share the dislike of really loud restaurants - you're usually there to socialize, not exercise your vocal chords.
On a related topic, I have a home office with a nice audio system and I wondered about the benefits of acoustics panels, since I thought I could hear echo in the room. So I bought a kit from Audimute (https://www.audimute.com/). It had 24 12"x24" panels and hardware to mount them on the walls.
I interspersed them with photographs (at least a couple panels on each wall) and also put a number near
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Sound deadening (Score:2)
I was at a construction trade show a few years back and came across a booth selling sound deadening pads that you just hung on your wall. The show, like all of them, was very noisy. I strongly recall standing so one ear was turned towards it and the other away. The effect was astonishing, it was MUCH quieter on the pad side. Oddly, however, it was that ear that began hurting after a short time. I think the brain does some sort of scaling and is trying hard to pull more sound out of the quiet side.
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Typically (Score:2)
In my experience anyway, the more " Family Friendly " a restaurant is, the louder it is likely to be.
If, instead, you eat anywhere that typically requires a reservation and has a dress code, it will be nice and quiet. ( albeit, $$$$ )
A few reasons I dislike eating out these days:
1) Kids screaming / crying / going full heathen and parents refusing to remove them from the dining area
2) Multiple folks have a game running ( kiddos usually ), or live TV or music blasting from the smartphone
3) Some places hav
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Unfortunately American restaurants (even the high-end ones) are all sports bar. TVs on every possible flat surface on the walls. It seems Americans cannot enjoy a lunch without watching sport on TV.
Quite weird for people coming from Europe, where having dinner at a restaurant and watching TV are totally incompatible.
Follow the money (Score:2)
Guarantee if you dig deep enough, this is pushed by some law firm looking to stir up a class action lawsuit.
Farts are magic (Score:2)
What restaurant architects don't realize... (Score:2)
Even been to a Black Angus? Restaurants with those high-backed booths creating private spaces are the quietest in the world. But that's not how things are done today, as TFA indicates. People who use hearing aids are the ones who still like the quiet style of restaurant, because in a noisy one the cacophony is amplified along with the conversation, and they hear nothing.
No mention of TVs? (Score:2)
More to this that you may think (Score:4, Interesting)
Several years ago, probably over a decade ago, slashdot published an article (that I failed to find) on restaurant noise. Yes, people were complaining about noisy restaurants back then.
To summarize, a restaurant with dining on two floors set up one with hard surfaces, bare brick walls an an exposed ceiling. It was loud! The other was traditional high-end room with wood tables, drapes an other soft sound absorbent surfaces. It was very quiet. Both were serving the same "New American" menu from the same kitchen.
After 6 months the "quiet" floor was closed and refitted to match the noisy floor because the loud floor was booked solid while the quiet floor always had available tables. The hypothesis was that noisy restaurants were perceived as "exciting" while quiet ones were "boring".
The bottom line was that, no matter how much people complain about noise, they prefer that to quiet dining. Loud dining rooms are often very much by design, not acoustic incompetence.
Treatments (Score:5, Interesting)
Sound absorbing treatments are usually, at the very least, flame retardant, as they are designed for use in commercial applications and have to follow fire codes for building materials. You can clean them with an upholstery attachment on a vacuum cleaner.
Our favorite breakfast place has pictures hanging on the walls and sound absorbing panels on the ceiling to control noise. It's also broken up into multiple rooms with upholstered chairs and booths. Even when it's packed, which it often is, you can have a conversation with everyone at your table without raising your voice.
The new hipster brunch place that opened up on the other side of town is a giant concrete, wood, glass and steel box. when someone sneezes on the other size of the restaurant it reverberates through the space like a thunderclap.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire
Pyrotechnics
Cause and Effect (Score:2)
Which is why stuff like this exists:
https://www.soundproofcow.com/... [soundproofcow.com]
And this:
http://www.acousticsfirst.com/... [acousticsfirst.com]
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Your day will come, son.
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