Why It’s So Difficult to Turn Down the Volume at Popular Restaurants
Decibel meter in hand, restaurant critic Richard Vines has some choice words for top chefs—if only you could hear them
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Jason Atherton, whose Social Restaurant Group is circling the globe, once told me that he was inspired by the Stanton Social in New York.
The chef said he loved the conviviality, the hospitality, the buzz. Ah yes, the buzz. I visited New York and made my way to that inspirational Lower East Side restaurant, with its ground-floor dining room and a bar up a flight of stairs. What Atherton, 43, experienced as a buzz was, for me, a ringing in the ears. It was loud—so loud that I had no interest in staying, even for a drink.