A recent Wall Street Journal article provided food for thought about the decibel levels in restaurants.
According to the article, in 2023, audio data from the app SoundPrint found that 63 percent of restaurants are too loud for conversation.
(Granted, this is a blessing in disguise if the conversation veers toward "SoundPrint? You told me your phone doesn't have enough space for photos of my trip to the International Lint Museum, but you have room to download SoundPrint????")
My father hated crowds, and I myself am not keen on venues where you can't hear yourself think (unless what I'm thinking is "probably too many calories in that – better leave it alone.")
According to an architect quoted in the article, focusing on the acoustics of a restaurant wasn't even a "thing" until three or four years ago.
Now restaurants are paying heed to surfaces that absorb just the........