Food; Home @ 18 Dec 2006 12:58 pm by Christina Waters
There’s one in every crowd: The loudmouth, I mean. The person whose voice can clear a room. It is rude beyond belief that people will sit down in a public place - in this case a restaurant - and proceed to hold every other diner hostage simply by talking nonstop, or by talking loudly nonstop. How can a person reach adulthood and not know that they are being obnoxious? Aha! That’s part of this personality profile. The loudmouth is so self-involved, feels so entitled that they don’t really give a damn about the feelings of anyone else. The world is theirs, isn’t it? To these people, I am down on my knees begging - please shut up! Please look around and notice that everyone else is sending daggers of disbelief and disgust, right at you. Please know that you are NOT the only person who is paying good money for their dinner, the restaurant’s ambience, the pleasure of actually hearing their companion’s conversation. Thank you.
Hi dearie,
I don’t have as much trouble with the loudmouths as with the NOISY NOISY restaurants I’ve been in lately. God! So many have stylishly stained concrete floors plus floor-to-ceiling glass so the whole world can see you eating in a fabulous place (?), so right off there’s so much ambient noise you need earplugs, then add the chatter of many happy diners who are practically shouting to hear their dining companions, then the kitchen starts banging around, and THEN they add some rock and roll or something over the built-in speakers. I try to get away from the direct source of noise from those speakers but they are ubiquitous.
I have been eliminating places lately - as in, I’ll never go there again. Used to like Kianti for a salad/pasta/wine easy dinner after a busy day. NEVER AGAIN, it’s so loud you can’t hear yourself think. You can ask them to turn down the music a little and they either agree but give you the “boy they’re weird” stink-eye, or they say they “have no control” over it.
We tried out the new Davenport place and it was UNBEARABLE, I actually sat there with my fingers in my ears! Okay - concrete floors, brick & glass walls, hard wood up above. I recall the old Cash Store had, I don’t know, tapestries or quilts or something hanging on the brick walls, which helped. Now, once the kitchen is banging around and the level of customer chat ramps up, forget it. This particular night they had a singer with a guitar and a couple of small amps, doing some jazz standards, but the singer was really bad. So add that on top of just about unbearable noise to begin with. So they’re on thelist.
I used to enjoy some places on the wharf for fun sometimes, like Riva, where the food is just ok but it’s fun sometimes to go and have a drink and watch the sun go down. But yikes - all tile. It’s so noisy I think, If I worked here I’d have to kill myself.
This has become a huge issue for me. I am having trouble finding places to eat where I’m not in PAIN.
Yeah, Dee,
I think it’s part of growing old, not being able to pick out a conversation from the din surrounding.
India Joze was unbearable after one re-model. We spent until it hurt putting in seagrass panels that helped, just barely. Subsequent occupants of the building ripped them out. Guess what? It’s deafening again.
The new 515 and Red restaurants are both quiet. Makes them seem like from a different era..
Huh? Can you speak up? Oh! You want to know if loud music can hurt your ears. Are you asking because you like to put on your headphones and crank up the volume of your favorite CD? Maybe your mom or dad has told you, “Turn that down before you go deaf!” WBR LeoP