I Can’t Hear You! By Don Billings
I was reading a recent edition of Popular Science magazine, and this edition was focused on sound. As I worked myself through the magazine, I came across an article about the noise level within restaurants and references to a few studies done by acoustic specialists regarding the effects of sound within a restaurant environment. This is something that I have thought about a lot over the years, especially since I have found many restaurants to be extremely noisy — to the point that you could not carry on a conversation with your dining partners. This is not a new issue but noise has been steadily increasing in volume. So, I began to look at other articles on the subject of noise. And, surprise — there are a ton of them. This experience is by no means unique; it’s become a fixture of dining out in America. “What did you say?”, “can you repeat that?” and “it’s so loud in here” are now phrases as common as “can I take your order?” “You’re working so hard to hear the conversation, you’re not in the conversation,” states Chris Berdik, in his Popular Science article, “Noise Level.” In an article written by Julia Belluz, titled “Why Restaurants Became So Loud – and How to Fight Back,” she reports that both Zagat and 42
in the Mix Magazine
Consumer Reports surveys have found that excessive noise is the top complaint diners have, ahead of service, crowds or even food issues. So how did this all begin? Let’s go back to the acoustic specialists. A large-scale study done back in 1993 found that restaurant sound levels peaked at 68 decibels (a little louder than normal chitchat). Fast forward to a 2018 survey of New York City restaurants in which the average level was 77 decibels, and at least a quarter of the restaurants surveyed hit at least 81 decibels. Only 10 percent were at or below 70 decibels. As the Popular Science article reports, some restaurants have peaks as high as 85 decibels (that’s near power-tool territory). “We can pin the din on converging trends that began in the 1990s. First, owners started favoring modernist or industrial looks. Out with the carpets, upholstery and drapes that were great sound absorbers but now deemed stuffy. In with high ceilings, bare floors and walls, and furniture made of hard, sound-reflective materials like cement, tile and plaster, and use of exposed ducts and glass, which send noise careening around the space,” explains Chris Berdik. The noise can be so irritating but it has become a fixture of dining out. So, it’s not unique for table guests to repeat “what did you say?”,
