If it seems that Baton Rouge restaurants are getting noisier, it’s because they are.
As 225‘s sister publication Business Report details in its new cover story, a growing number of local eateries are embracing trendy, industrial aesthetics and design that test every barrier of sound.
The magazine used a General sound level meter to take snapshots of the sound intensity in local restaurants at various periods during the day, rather than average decibels over a period of time.
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Inside a packed Capital City Grill at lunchtime, for example, silverware clinks against entree plates and glasses clatter on sleek tabletops as chairs screech along the tile floor. Somehow these everyday sounds are amplified to between 80 and 90 decibels. That, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, is as loud as dining next to a running lawn mower, blender or blow dryer.
Yet, in spite of this cacophonous symphony of noise ricocheting off tile floors, glass walls, hardwood tables and exposed ceilings—or maybe because of it—satisfied customers pack the restaurant most weekdays during lunch.
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Capital City Grill is hardly alone in Baton Rouge. The Overpass Merchant on Perkins Road reached 91 decibels on a recent Wednesday night, while a Tuesday lunch crowd at Bistro Byronz on Government Street experienced a high of 83 decibels, comparable to a garbage disposal. Sunday brunch at The Chimes on Highland, just outside the north gates of LSU, hit 84 decibels, while Sammy’s Grill reached 86 on Sunday evening.
It turns out people—especially millennials—crave the fortissimo created when modern restaurant design meets our desire for a boisterous good time.
Read on for the full story from Business Report.