A Quiet Dinner… Or Not

My wife and I are in our retirement years. Occasionally we go out for dinner and have a few restaurants we especially like. What we find disturbing is how often people seated near us speak so loudly.

One exception is Stuart Anderson's Black Angus Restaurant. The booths have high backs and sides that isolate, if you will, those seated at each table. The acoustics are wonderful. We believe that Black Angus attracts those who want a quiet dinner. Those patrons are rather quiet to begin with.

There are a few eateries we avoid entirely because we have found them to have lots of ambient noise. It seems that most all the patrons are speaking loudly. Poor acoustics could certainly be part of that undesirable "ambience."

A couple other places we like can provide a quiet setting now and then. Yet, too often there will be a couple sitting in the booth next to us, or a table away, and at least one of those two will speak so loudly to the other that patrons two and three tables away can hear what they are saying.

I could not care less about hearing why someone's daughter is having a shotgun wedding, and all the problems pleasing the bride-to-be, and difficulties with the planning, etc., etc, ad nauseam.

I guarantee that anyone directly next to my wife and I cannot hear our conversation. Until our food is served we definitely discuss things. We can hear one another, no one else can. We would never be so rude as to require others to listen to our verbal intercourse.

That is our contribution to the quiet mealtimes of others at dinner. Unfortunately there are those who have no concept of a quiet dinner. It is as though some individuals believe that a restaurant is where people are expected to speak loudly.

Are we right to expect quiet surroundings, or are we simply out of touch with the times?