The Washington Post’s food critic got it wrong
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Photo credit: Terje Sollie
Several weeks ago, a reader asked The Washington Post food critic Elazar Sontag about his view on patron requests to have the volume of background music at restaurants turned down. Sontag agreed with the questioner’s colleague that “it’s a restaurant’s job to set the vibe, and our job as diners is to either enjoy it or take our business elsewhere.”
He went on to add that “taking your business elsewhere because a restaurant is too loud or otherwise uncomfortable is entirely fair!” Most comments on the article disagreed with Sontag, as do I.
Why do I disagree? Restaurant noise is clearly a problem for many diners, and in many years is the leading dining complaint, according to the Zagat Guide. Unnecessarily high ambient noise levels pose a problem for people with auditory disorders, especially hearing loss but also tinnitus and hyperacusis.
For people with hearing loss, who have difficulty understanding what their dining companions are saying if it’s too loud in the restaurant, high ambient noise levels make it difficult, if not impossible, to converse. For those with tinnitus or hyperacusis, noise often makes symptoms worse.
Unnecessarily high noise levels in restaurants pose a problem for many older Americans. Hearing loss is common in people over age 65. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the United States, about a third of people over 65 live alone. A restaurant meal may be the only time they get to converse with a friend or family member. If they can’t understand what’s being said, after a while they stop accepting invitations for restaurant meals, contributing to their loneliness.
A conservative economist I once met said that if people really wanted quieter restaurants, the market would provide them. I told him that markets didn’t always work, and that noisy restaurants clearly were an example of the understudied field of “market failure.” Shortages of vital medicines for both patients at home but also for those in hospitals are another example of market failure.
What can we do about noisy restaurants? The Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees all Americans the right to full participation in and full enjoyment of places of public accommodation. It’s time for someone with hearing loss to file a federal lawsuit alleging unlawful discrimination by a noisy restaurant that refuses to turn down the sound volume of background music amplified to rock concert sound levels.
People should keep asking restaurants to turn down the volume. They should also complain to their elected officials about restaurant noise, and maybe even file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights.
It’s long past time for everyone, young and old, with or without an auditory disorder, to be able to enjoy the food and the conversation with their dining companions.