How Restaurants Got So Loud

[weinoo]

18 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

the reality that most of the new/hip, exciting restaurants that interest us will be loud. 

I think it was considered hip when a certain orange-clogged chef was doing this at Babbo. That was 23 years ago.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

3 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I think it was considered hip when a certain orange-clogged chef was doing this at Babbo. That was 23 years ago.

It was true in San Francisco and Paris as late as 2019.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

It was true in San Francisco and Paris as late as 2019.

 

I'm pretty sure that's post-hip.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

 

I'm pretty sure that's post-hip.

You are entirely correct.    Should have said "hot".

[kayb]

I'm reminded of my favorite bar in Memphis, the P&H Cafe, whose proprietress, Wanda, allowed amplified music only two nights a year (August 16, the Dead Elvis Ball, and September 17, Hank Williams Sr.'s birthday). "This is  a conversation bar," she contended.

 

[lemniscate]

32 minutes ago, kayb said:

I'm reminded of my favorite bar in Memphis, the P&H Cafe, whose proprietress, Wanda, allowed amplified music only two nights a year (August 16, the Dead Elvis Ball, and September 17, Hank Williams Sr.'s birthday). "This is  a conversation bar," she contended.

 

 

That is civilized right there.  Full stop.

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, lemniscate said:

 

That is civilized right there.  Full stop.

When I come into my first trillion I think I will open a string of “conversation bars”. As you say… Civilized! 

[lemniscate]

6 minutes ago, Anna N said:

When I come into my first trillion I think I will open a string of “conversation bars”. As you say… Civilized! 

Save me a seat at the bar.  I can talk a blue streak.

Edited July 17, 2021 by lemniscate (log)

[kayb]

The P&H, under Wanda's ownership/management, would have been a fine prototype. It was, up into the late 90s, the only bar in Memphis, at least that I knew of, that still had Kingston Trio on the jukebox. And Wanda was -- well, she was one of a kind. Sadly, she is no longer with us; all those decades of Marlboro Lights got to her.

 

One of the many obits, and one which pretty much captured the nature of the place, is here. 

 

I went there for the first time in 1978, when I was a senior in college and working at The Commercial Appeal. Wanda found out I was from Camden, TN, just about 30 miles from her hometown of Parsons, and immediately decided we must be kin. ("My Daddy was a travelin' man...") From then until I moved away, I'd get off at 9:30, head up to the P&H, and wait tables in exchange for my tab.  Early evenings, before the serious drinking began, the P&H was a family bar, and my kids grew up eating burgers and fries, learning to shoot pool, busing tables and watching TV in the kitchen with the cook. 

 

I miss it, and her.

 

 

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

When I come into my first trillion I think I will open a string of “conversation bars”. As you say… Civilized! 

Please.    And wishing you great good fortune!   

[Margaret Pilgrim]

It really is about perception.    I remember two recent restaurant conversations with FOH person regarding decibels of music.   "It's loud?   Really?   I hadn't noticed it."    And nothing done to address it.   

[Anton4100]

One of the main sources of noise in restaurants and cafes is background music. It helps create a lively atmosphere, but sometimes sounds too loud.

Restaurant critic for The Washington Post, Tom Sietsema, notes that he has been paying close attention to this problem: “I've been talking about this for ten years. This is a source of constant irritation." In its reviews, Sietsma includes a noise level rating with decibel counts along with ratings of food quality.

But you also need background noise in the restaurant so that people don’t hear them slurping.

[Alex]

On 11/17/2023 at 11:06 AM, Anton4100 said:

One of the main sources of noise in restaurants and cafes is background music. It helps create a lively atmosphere, but sometimes sounds too loud.

Restaurant critic for The Washington Post, Tom Sietsema, notes that he has been paying close attention to this problem: “I've been talking about this for ten years. This is a source of constant irritation." In its reviews, Sietsma includes a noise level rating with decibel counts along with ratings of food quality.

But you also need background noise in the restaurant so that people don’t hear them slurping.

 

Speaking of Tom Sietsema, there's a good article in today's WaPo about this.

 

Quote

An acoustics professor, a food critic and an audio producer are staring at their devices in a Peruvian restaurant in downtown Washington.

 

“What are you getting?”

 

“Let’s see … it’s fluctuating.”

 

“I just got 80.”

 

“Whoa, it just spiked to 87!”

 

These are sound-level readings taken from our table — a corner booth overlooking the dining area of Pisco y Nazca. I’m Bishop Sand, an audio producer at The Washington Post, and I’m here with Lily Wang, who runs the acoustics program at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, and my colleague Tom Sietsema, The Post’s food critic for the past 24 years.

 

[weinoo]

We only now comment to each other about restaurant noise levels when they are quiet enough for the two of us to have a conversation without shouting.

 

And we also (now) often try to dine earlier.  First, the staff is less harried, especially the kitchen. Second, if restaurants are gonna crank up the music, they tend to do so a little later in the evening.

 

We were just in Montreal and Portland, and I have to say that at most of the places we dined, noise levels were acceptable.

[gfweb]

I find that super-noisy places are more a NYC thing. Not sure why that should be, but there it is.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Noise level at hip food dining rooms is untenable in SF.    Fueled by flowing wine and a young well-heeled crowd.