Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Friday April 20 2018, @06:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the say-what-again dept.

Vox presents an article about restaurant noise levels and why they've risen over the years.

When the Line Hotel opened in Washington, DC, last December, the cocktail bars, gourmet coffee shops, and restaurants that fill its cavernous lobby drew a lot of buzz. Housed in a century-old church, the space was also reputedly beautiful.

My first visit in February confirmed that the Line was indeed as sleek as my friends and restaurant critics had suggested. There was just one problem: I wanted to leave almost as soon as I walked in. My ears were invaded by a deafening din.

[...] In reckoning with this underappreciated health threat, I’ve been wondering how we got here and why any well-meaning restaurateur would inflict this pain on his or her patrons and staff. I learned that there are a number of reasons — and they mostly have to do with restaurant design trends. In exposing them, I hope restaurateurs will take note: You may be deafening your staff and patrons.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by pTamok on Friday April 20 2018, @03:20PM (1 child)

    by pTamok (3042) on Friday April 20 2018, @03:20PM (#669669)

    One reason bars are noisy is that when people can't converse because of the noise, they drink more. Similarly, if you remove the seats and have trendy tables at a convenient hight to stand at, people drink more - they don't sit back, relax and chat. Noisy bars without seats make more money. They will also sell salty food/snacks - more salt makes you drink more. A quiet bar with comfortable seats and good food has far, far lower throughput and makes less money.

    Restaurants have a similar pressure. Fast food establishment deliberately have uncomfortable seats and bright lighting to discourage lingering. Non-fast food establishments will be doing their very best to pack in more than one 'sitting' in an evening. Some places are quite explicit about how long you can remain at your table and can even have hourly (or shorter) sittings. Noise encourages throughput, and increases profit - or at least enables you to keep your head above water in this business.

    If you want a quiet, relaxed meal, you will need to pay for it.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 20 2018, @06:24PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 20 2018, @06:24PM (#669751) Journal

    That's an odd conclusion. I don't like fancy places, and I don't like noisy places. So I generally go to small non-chain restaurants. I find they do quite well and have a low noise level. I prefer a restaurant where the lighting is such that I can read, and if there isn't a line waiting to get in (I try to pick the time of day when that's true) I don't feel any pressure to hurry out. Even when I do the pressure is self-generated, because I don't like to keep people waiting.

    I think you must like a very different selection of restaurants. AFAIKT the ones I go to have food as good as those in the fancier places. I can make the comparison, because I can't always avoid those. I've never seen a chain restaurant that I felt decent. The best ones I found were either IHOP or Denny's, and those were really only marginal, and to be avoided unless one is traveling.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.