Serious Eats
Are Restaurants Too Noisy?
When the headline and the lede in Frank Bruni's restaurant review in the New York Times are both about noise, maybe, just maybe, we've reached the point of no return when it comes to restaurant noise levels. Consider the following line from Bruni's review: "Talking with tablemates at Mercat can be like watching an in-flight movie when you haven't purchased the earphones."
Here's my question: Is that state of affairs either necessary or desirable?
When you talk to chefs and restaurateurs about this issue, some will say the noise level in their restaurants is the result of faulty design, that they didn't know the noise level was going to be a problem until they opened their doors and discovered that sitting in their full restaurant was like being on an idling jet waiting to take off.
Others say they like the noise level high, that it translates into diners thinking they're at a hot, successful restaurant pulsating with energy. Some of those same people claim that their restaurants are meant for people who welcome sitting in that kind of environment, those carefree young folks who actively seek out those kinds of eating experiences.
Sometimes the noise level is exacerbated by earsplittingly loud music, which, as a serious serial music lover, I would be more appreciative of if the DJ, chef, or restaurateur hadn't chosen awful techno pop.
I don't think this state of affairs is going to change anytime soon. Loud restaurants will open for people who either seek them out or tolerate them. Quiet restaurants will open up for people who want to savor the sounds of their tablemates' voices and the food.
But as a food lover, I'm saddened by the fact that I probably won't get to eat at Mercat because I don't want to put up with a noise level that can be described as a "volume of sound that crosses over between pulse-quickening and brain-rattling." Wouldn't it be great if restaurants, like the Long Island Railroad, had quiet sections? I know achieving a quiet sub-space is much easier to do on a train, where it's a matter of isolating people in individual cars.
Maybe I'm just too old for Mercat or for Resto, an insanely loud restaurant I recently ate at with three friends. I loved the artery-hardening, incredibly delicious food, but I haven't thought about returning because of the noise level. I literally couldn't hear half of what my friends were saying, which was a real shame because the conversation was both stimulating and intimate.
The architect David Rockwell once said he designed restaurants around the idea that they were places that people went to take two-hour vacations from their lives. I've always loved that idea, but lately I'm beginning to realize that there are all kinds of vacations to be had, and that some folks like to rock and roll on South Beach all night long when they go away.