Is it just a Southern thing that in every restaurant I go into the music is LOUD.

[patricia92243]

It is not the type of music that is so annoying, it is the volume. I would like to be able to talk to the people I am dining with.

I live in the South and have not really been anywhere else. I was just wondering if this is a southern thing (redneck) or in other parts of the USA you can eat a quiet dinner.

[unc70]

1. It is most everywhere

Not just music, but noise levels in general have increased.

[Tetrachloride]

2. Music is important when a fight breaks out.

YouTube memes don’t like silent movies from security cameras.

[Ocelot II]

3. Nope. It's everywhere.

And there also seems to be a design trend for new restaurants to have a lot of hard surfaces so every sound is even louder. I don't get it. One of the main reasons for dining out is to have a good meal while socializing with others, but it's exhausting to have to shout just to carry on a conversation. And, of course, the shouting everybody has to do just makes it all even louder. It's really miserable for older people/people with hearing impairments, and for the people who are trying to communicate with them. If some restaurant owner would advertise a quiet ambience - lots of upholstered surfaces, no exposed brick, little or no music, I'd go there in a heartbeat. Which I might even be able to hear.

[patricia92243]

7. I agree if the ads said it has quiet ambience. I'd be there in a minute!

[ret5hd]

4. My "process" works well:

If the establishment advertises on TV:
1) it will be noisy.
2) the food will be pre-packaged microwaved/reheated pap…no “customization” of the meal.
3) the staff will be overworked (understaffed).

I find some of our best dinner experiences (other than at home) at small ethnic places stuck in the odd corner of a strip-mall that has three tables and carry-out.

1) QUIET
2) no pre-packaged pap, ask questions, customize NO problem
3) staff is very often the owner
4) damn, that food is good!

[patricia92243]

6. This a good process - thanks!

[yorkster]

5. I think it's to encourage quick turnover.

IIRC in the 70s or 80s the Brighams chain in the Boston area switched to bright primary colors - red white and blue. I think - and turned the volume up on the so-called bkgrnd. music. We stayed away for awhile until the lure of ice cream sodas and raspberry lime rickeys was too powerful...

Jeez, next thing you know I'll start talking about lemon phosphates and Grover"s Corners.

[ret5hd]

8. What you need is a Balsam Specific

[yorkster]

9. Very 😁 - BTW

I knew Sal Hepatica - helluva guy.

[Ocelot II]

10. Article from the Atlantic about loud restaurants:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/

[patricia92243]

15. Interesting article. I don't mind "people" noise. It is the loud music that drives me crazy.

I have earplugs for the ones that are really bad - but they make me hear myself chewing

[ReluctanceTango]

12. Lived in four states, been to nearly all of them west of the Mississippi

And all of those along the Gulf Coast.

The answer is: No. Every state I've been to has restaurants with loud music playing, and it seems to be getting louder at all of them.

It's by design. Loud, peppy music makes most people eat faster = opening up that table to someone else sooner = mo money mo money mo money.

This is the real reason restaurants are so loud now. They don't want you talking. They want you ordering, eating, and getting the hell out, as fast as possible, so they can lather, rinse, repeat with more customers.

[ReluctanceTango]

14. BTW: My son was in LA visiting his wife's family before the pandemic

He and his wife went to a restaurant called Republique. Supposedly some upscale place, but the noise level was so loud that both of them got severe headaches before their entree could get to them. As a reference point for me, he mentioned a restaurant we had stepped inside, but decided to leave because the noise level set both of us on edge.

He said that place was like a library in comparison to Republique.

That is too damned loud.

[patricia92243]

16. LOL - a library. Next thing we know, they will be piping in loud noises.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. it is everywhere and I hate it too! nt