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How about "Quiet Hours" for restaurants?

 

Dear Neighbors and Friends,
 
Restaurants should always be quiet. You are not dining alone. You are sharing a space with strangers. If your parents did their job, they would have taught you not to disturb other people—ever. If you want to shriek with laughter, shout across the table, stand up and wave to someone just coming in, stay home!  
 
I hated eating out when I was a kid. I only remember doing so on Mothers’ Day. I had to sit still! Be quiet! Not squirm or wiggle my chair! Not complain about the food—and it was usually awful! My mother’s cooking was much better. She only cooked what we liked. She didn’t waste time or money on garnishes. Which I thought I had to eat because I had to “clean my plate.” McDonalds, Burger King, and other family “restaurants” don’t count! They are for the family, behave as badly as you wish. “Restaurant” is a misnomer.

Eleanor 🌸
 
- from previous message -
 I wonder: does anyone else think quiet hours in a restaurant might become a marketable concept? I just returned from San Diego, where the conversation indoors and outdoors on the patio of a restaurant in Little Italy (I recommend Monello if you're going there!) was so low and pleasant that I remarked on it to my dining companion. He was surprised to learn that we had an app to monitor volume in restaurants.
I wonder if having the equivalent of a "quiet car" in a train would be possible. I too have declined returning to restaurants if I have to raise my voice and shout instead of speak with others. 
[snip]
 
 

 
But I wonder whether the current issue of noise in restaurants really has much to do with behavior? I've heard the screaming child that parents don't even try to calm, but in general I feel like it has more to do with how places have been constructed/renovated, especially the materials used. What are the floors made of? Are they carpeted? How about the ceilings? How high are they and is there insulation? A "quiet hour" and/or well-behaving kids might really not make much difference in a lot of the newer or recently renovated restaurants.

Karen Davis
Connecticut Ave
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The referenced message is Message  
 

 
I have been told that one major reason restaurants (plural) don’t cut down on the noise is that it leads to an “atmosphere of enjoyment and everybody having a good time.”
 
When entering a restaurant, I look for where the loud speakers are for the music and where might be a quiet(er) place for  a conversation.
 
Acoustic material/sound abatement needn’t cost a bundle. As part of a team that put Penn Station, Newark, NJ on the National Register of Historic Places - during the First rehab of the Amtrak Stations on the NE Corridor - I remember documenting some large medallions way far up on the walls of the main waiting room which were made of acoustic materials - apparently the first use in a public building in the US. Not that impressive, but there they were :)
 
Diana
 
- previous message -
But I wonder whether the current issue of noise in restaurants really has much to do with behavior? I've heard the screaming child that parents don't even try to calm, but in general I feel like it has more to do with how places have been constructed/renovated, especially the materials used. What are the floors made of? Are they carpeted? How about the ceilings? How high are they and is there insulation? A "quiet hour" and/or well-behaving kids might really not make much difference in a lot of the newer or recently renovated restaurants.
 

 
Although I may have missed the initiation of this thread so I could be more certain if it actually has included references to noisy children [Ed. note: It did -- see Message #215845 ], our experience with noise in restaurants is now disturbing, painful, annoying, irritating and vexing almost never because of children but rather because of intentional design and operational factors such as hard reflective surfaces, multiplicity of audio speakers, volume levels way too high for thump, thump, thump obnoxious music on subscription tracks, tables too close together, and lots of other willful and purposeful noise creators and enhancers. 
 
Try asking your server or management to lower the ear-shattering volumes and you might get minimal compliance, if any at all. There appears to be a theme in restaurant development these days that quiet is a condition to be absolutely avoided at all cost, and yes much of the causes of irritation by noise pollution are themselves costly. Apparently, restaurant owners believe that more liquor will be sold in a given period, and turnover of table tops will occur at a faster rate if the patrons are subjected to an elevated target level of noise irritation that newer venues adopt to outdo their older competition.
 
We have moved our reservation times to earlier and earlier, sometimes the very moment a desired destination starts serving dinner, but if one is tempted to linger in a leisurely fashion and the place begins to fill up, a soft, reserved, peaceful conversation requires increasing effort and stress to continue, so it has gotten to the point that even the trick of coming early is largely futile for any occasion we would like to engage in a gentle or serene meal. 
 
Tranquility has gone the way of the 3 speed stick shift in this age of haste, expedition, and urgency.  Our experience with unacceptable noise is rarely children’ s behavior. 
 
Neal Gross
CP neighbor
 
- from previous message -
Restaurants should always be quiet. You are not dining alone. You are sharing a space with strangers. If your parents did their job, they would have taught you not to disturb other people—ever. [snip]

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