The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]

[Previous Entry] [Diary Home] [Next Entry]

07/05/2005 Archived Entry: "Quiet in Restaurants"

In the city that never sleeps, a quiet table in the corner has become the ultimate luxury. It’s often the little things that count the most. A rich, self-made man who lives in a venerable Park Avenue apartment was asked -- this is a true story -- to name his ultimate luxury. He said, “Good water pressure every morning.”

In my last diary entry, I brought up the issue – the problem, as we used to say – of noise in restaurants. It may be a little thing, but a quiet dinner with friends or family feels so good when you have it. There’s no question that restaurants have gotten noisier. And now that I am (way) above 50, there is the temptation -- and I am guilty of having given in to this one -- to self-deprecate, feel ancient, and declare, “Well, it’s a new world,” meaning it’s not be for me but I suppose it makes the children happy.

On the other hand, people of a certain age – which is to say Baby Boomers and the long-lived parents of Baby Boomers – when confronted with a trendy and very noisy restaurant, like to claim we have more to talk about than do 30-year-olds, and so we need to be heard across the table, which they don’t. Having sat through many dull dinners with adults and many delightful ones with young people still discovering the world, I doubt it.

It dawned on me the other day, however, that none of the above is worth discussing next to the real problem. The real reason we can’t find peace and quiet and good food in one place is that New York real estate is so precious that restaurants must make the most of every inch of floor space and put as many tables and people as possible into a room. A crowded room is a noisy room. Go to a noisy restaurant when it opens at 5:30 and you’ll find quiet.

Along the same lines, rents are increasing so rapidly that restaurants must charge more and more to pay the overhead. Meanwhile, the cost of food itself is increasing. Imported products are more expensive because the dollar is weak. Beef prices have soared in recent years for various reasons, economic and not. Other food prices are about to increase because record prices for oil will have that impact.

What all this means is that it now costs at least $150 a person to get a quiet table in the corner.

I can assure you, for instance, that the noise level at The Four Seasons, Le Bernardin, Daniel, March, Per Se, and Jean-Georges, our most prestigious restaurants, is totally civilized, if not hushed. To tell the truth, I found Thomas Keller’s Per Se, his new restaurant in the Time Warner Center, too quiet. There should be at least the hum of conversation to make a room convivial. Here the tables are so widely spaced and so few people in the room (at $200 or much more per head), that it feels like you are in an empty restaurant.

You used to be able to get quiet for $70 to $80 a person, including food, drink, tax, and tip. But, these days, a restaurant at that price range in Manhattan may not even have tablecloths. You’re seeing more naked tabletops in high-end restaurants these days because 1) as high as $70 a head is, its not really high end anymore, 2) laundering tablecloths is a big expense, while setting and resetting tables takes longer with cloths than without, and 3) bare tabletops set the tone of informality that even fine dining establishments aim for today. Incidentally, one small way restaurants can buffer sound is to pad the tabletops under the tablecloths. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the wood top or marble top or metal top is. Those materials bounce sound around, they don’t absorb it.

Indeed, there are many design and acoustical actions a restaurant can take to buffer sound, but, still, if you put the fire department’s limit of people in a room, even without thumping music on the sound system, you’re bound to have noise.

I asked you all to contribute to this conversation, and I did get a good response. Mostly, however, you named restaurants in the suburbs and the big-ticket restaurants I just named. I am very happy that so many of you can afford Le Bernardin, which was the most frequently mentioned “quiet” restaurant.

Here are some other ideas and comments from you all:

Two of you wrote in about this place: “North Square in the Washington Hotel in GV (Greenwich Village) for quiet. Good prices, good food and lovely presentation. Attractive and reasonable wine list too.”

From Marie: “As for quiet restaurants, I don't really know any that are also great quality, but what we do when we want quiet is to eat earlier. If we go at 6 or 7, we have a relatively quiet place. I know this is not considered the right way to go, but we don't care so much about that. We are early risers so it often works for us. I also find that places that serve outdoors aren't as noisy as indoors.”

From Peri: “Arthur, Dervish, another of your favorites, is also a quiet and peaceful space. The food is good, too, as you know. Of course, what good is a quiet restaurant if the reason it's quiet is that no one wants to eat there?!”

From Lita: “We really enjoyed the food and able-to-talk atmosphere here, before heading over to the Connelly Theater: Cantinella Ristorante, 23 Avenue A.”

From Phil: I'd like to take you up on your offer to come up with a list of quiet places for dinner (with good food, of course). Right now, I go to 3 or 4 different restaurants, pretty much every night: Bellini, Aqua Pazza, Bill Hong, and Il Monello, and every now and then, a steak at either Sparks or Old Homestead.

Remember, you can write to me at mavensmail@aol.com.