Australian House & Garden

Restaurant noise

City dwellers have become so inured to noise that they don’t even notice it any more. We awake to the sound of garbage trucks roaring by, bottles for recycling being tipped into bins at six in the morning or earlier, the constant hum of traffic, the scream of sirens on ambulances, police cars and fire engines. The thunder of motor cycles and, most irritating of all, the whine of leaf blowers. So how puzzling it is that when one might want to relax and enjoy a little quiet over a meal in a restaurant, the aural assault continues.

It seems that the contemporary restaurant is actually designed to replicate or at least compete with the racket outside the front door. There is a theory that a disco beat keeps staff on their feet, transforms them into robots but what about the effect on the customers? Most contemporary restaurant designers love hard surfaces, cement floors, brick walls, bare tables. They seem to avoid anything that might absorb the odd decibel of noise, so when the muzak kicks in customers raise their voices and as more diners arrive they raise them further until it seems that people are screaming to make themselves heard and not succeeding very well. There are two solutions to this modern urban problem. One is to learn to lip read. The other is to patronise only restaurant in which one can make onself heard without straing vocal cords.

In the areas in which I live, one of the most densely populated in any Australian cities, there are perhaps fifty or sixty restaurants. Only one has carpet. That particular establishment, a Thai restaurant, also has comfortable chairs, well upholstered, and the tables are widely spaced. It’s an island of calm in a sea of chaos, silence among bedlam, a muzak-free zone where conversation can be savoured, guests linger and emerge feeling refreshed rather than with nerves shot to pieces. Bring back comfort I say and to hell with style and chic.

• Posted By: Leo at Large at 10.41AM

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