Restaurant noise is in the news once again

by Neil Donnenfeld, MBA, Chair, Quiet Restaurants Working Group

Photo credit: Lawrence Suzara

The South Florida Sun Sentinel joined a cacophony of news organizations highlighting that restaurants are getting louder. The increased noise irritates some patrons while others are harmed. Lois Soloman’s article covers much of the same ground that other articles of this genre mention.

The article includes many hallmarks of the “noisy restaurant” issue. This includes restaurant owners knowing that many people struggle to have a conversation, yet loud noise is good for their business. Further, many chefs dream of owning a restaurant with delicious food, crowded tables and vibrant music.

There is the usual discussion about what decibel (dB) levels are harmful to restaurant staff and diners. Soloman correctly states that 55-65 dB is the noise range a restaurant should maintain so diners can converse comfortably with one another. Unfortunately, she incorrectly cites the industrial-strength 85-dB sound level rather than the EPA-calculated, 24-hour time-weighted average of 70 dB for a day as the safe noise exposure level. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, 85 dB sound has more than 300 times as much damaging sound energy than 60 dB sound.

To her credit, Soloman offers ideas on dining out with less noise. These include dining early when restaurants are less busy, calling ahead, requesting a quieter table, sitting by a wall or in a corner, using the SoundPrint app to identify quieter restaurants and adjusting hearing aids to restaurant mode. It also lists quieter restaurants in the area for people who want less noise while dining.

This article makes a great case for the idea of quiet hours, which is being put forth by Quiet Communities’ Quiet Restaurants Working Group. Our idea is for restaurants to designate a few quiet hours each week during which they accommodate people who want or need a quieter dining experience. This includes those with auditory disorders, PTSD, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.

Providing quiet hours means that restaurant owners turn down the volume on TVs and background music, minimize kitchen noise or notify diners with a card on each table that quiet hours are in progress. Then, they must empower wait staff to accommodate these diners. 

Quiet Communities is in the early stages of developing a program and disseminating information about quiet hours in restaurants. For more information, please visit our Quiet Restaurants web page.