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The next time you visit a favorite restaurant, check the underside of the table. Not for gum but carpet. Securing carpet to tables is just one of many “secret” strategies for managing noise in restaurants. For some, if a restaurant’s noise level proves unbearable, that place may get written off, regardless of the food’s taste or chef’s reputation. We turned to three architects/designers who regularly work with restaurant owners and asked them how they design with noise in mind.
The popular aesthetic of many restaurants today—high ceilings, exposed duct work, bare tables, and hardwood floors—contributes to high noise levels. A number of restaurateurs have done away with tablecloths, carpeting, and heavy drapery, perhaps due to changing tastes but more likely because of the maintenance and cost involved with keeping those items clean. This is unfortunate because adding fabric is one weapon in the arsenal of noise reduction.
Helen Lee, a founding principal of Tao+Lee Associates, said that many of her restaurant clients are on a tight budget and balk at the expense of noise reduction strategies like sound insulation. For Mia Sorella, however, Lee and her team designed acoustical clouds that hang from the ceiling and absorb some of the noise. Covered in insulation, the clouds can be painted out or wrapped in fabric to match the space’s décor. If tablecloths are not an option, chairs may be upholstered, fabric-covered banquettes may be installed, and bar panels wrapped in leather. Upholstered benches and an acoustical ceiling were added to one of Lee’s recent projects: the renovated King and I on South Grand.
A partner in the Atlanta-based Concentrics Restaurants,Todd Rushing designed Three Sixty, The Restaurant at The Cheshire, and Basso. While many only think about reducing noise in restaurants, Rushing spoke of the equally important need to create noise in the right environment. Basso, for example, requires a “certain amount of ambient noise to build energy”—noise which comes from music. Rushing clarified it like this: for a first date, a livelier place like Three Sixty (left) or Basso (below) makes an ideal destination. If you don’t mesh with the person, there’s enough noise and activity to ameliorate what can be an awkward situation.
With fast-paced music in the background, you might drink more as well, according to George Prochnik in his book, In Pursuit of Silence, taking the edge off the bad date. Loud music may also turn the tables over faster, as reported in this CNN.com article, allowing the next couple their chance at love or at least alcohol-fueled lust.
For a special date, say an anniversary, The Restaurant at The Cheshire offers the perfect venue for quiet conversation and lingering looks. An historical building, The Restaurant posed some “architectural challenges,” acknowledged Rushing. Lowered ceilings (above) and tablecloths helped to absorb some of the noise. Rushing follows a basic formula: the higher the check average, the lower the noise should be (think Tony’s with its hushed tones reminiscent of a church). “If we create a concept that we want at a lower price point, then we want to raise the energy,” explained the designer.
Tom Niemeier, President of SPACE Architecture + Design, takes a proactive approach to noise management. Too often, he’s seen situations in which little thought goes into acoustics, a whole space is built out, and then problems arise, forcing changes that often prove difficult and costly to implement. Niemeier forestalls such problems by both having a plan from the beginning that specs out strategies and having “some other things up [his] sleeve” as reinforcements should customers complain. Interestingly, Niemeier prefers the term “trap” to absorb” when he discusses noise reduction: “We’ll create places that the noise travels and attempt to trap it or keep it busy for a while.”
Franco and Vino Nadoz—two SPACE-designed restaurants—provide examples of trapping noise. At Franco (above), they incorporated woven panels that hang from the ceiling. Sound travels through the panels’ holes to the ceiling, where it bounces back down into the panel, which traps a large percentage of it. The solution at Vino Nadoz (below) involves metal tracking along the ceiling containing sound insulation hidden in the tracks. Spaces between the tracks work alongside the insulation, again, to trap sound. “It’s the best job we’ve done at hiding treatment,” Niemeier claimed.
Like Basso, Pastaria (below), Gerard Craft’s newest restaurant in Clayton, needs some noise to complement its lively, informal atmosphere friendly to adults and children alike. Niemeier cleverly used what’s often the culprit of too much noise in a restaurant—the open kitchen—to manage overall sound. Above the kitchen ceiling rests batt (or “sound” for the layperson) insulation; sound travels from the restaurant, through the pass, and into the kitchen, where it’s trapped in the ceiling, and the customer is none the wiser since it’s all out of sight.
Next door, at Niche, Craft’s first restaurant, relocated from Benton Park, the check average is decidedly higher than that at Pastaria. Following Rushing’s formula, then, one would expect the space to be quieter. And it is, thanks to Niemeier’s efforts. With its wood floors and drywall, the restaurant is a magnet for noise; moreover, the acoustical drywall that was originally part of the plan had to be cut from the budget. The solution? Still to be applied are an acoustical panel that will hang on one wall above a banquette, and drapery. Covering as much square footage as you can is key, according to the SPACE founder, so having a panel cover a whole wall will greatly reduce the noise in the room.
The Washington Post’s food critic Tom Sietsema includes sound decibel levels in his restaurant reviews, illustrating how important a criterion noise has become when diners choose their next destination. And, the ubiquitous restaurant-ratings publisher Zagat put out this graph on NYC restaurants and decibel levels showing that 100 decibels is equivalent to an ambulance. In the absence of Sietsema’s and Zagat’s ratings, take a look around the next time you dine out and try to spot the hidden strategies for noise reduction. If they were designed by Lee, Rushing, or Niemeier, chances are that your eyes won’t notice, but your ears probably will.
