Why are Fresno restaurants so loud? The reason some people say noise is a good thing

“Good food but it’s SO dang loud,” reads a Yelp review for one of Fresno’s most popular restaurants.

It’s a complaint that you hear a lot in Fresno.

Someone goes to a restaurant anticipating a cozy meal and good conversation with a loved one and ends up shouting, “What? What was that?” repeatedly.

So why are some Fresno restaurants so loud?

The issue has a lot to do with modern design trends and the way sound bounces off hard surfaces. There are tactics for reducing noise, though they are expensive and often unsightly.

And there are some people, including restaurant owners, who don’t think the noise is an issue. Quite the opposite. They want a lively, happening place.

So let’s take a deep dive into the decibel-driven debate and take a look at what’s happening at Fresno restaurants.

Why so noisy?

All types of restaurants inspire complaints about noise from customers, from the upscale Annex Kitchen to Culichi Town, Yardhouse, Heirloom, Pismo’s, Saizon, Annesso Pizzeria and more. Dog House Grill workers calling out order numbers inspired one Reddit.com poster to describe it as “like eating at a old dmv.”

Tiffany Reimer of Fresno said if she’s headed out for a date night or wants an intimate conversation, there are certain restaurants she won’t go to — even though she loves them, including Annex Kitchen.

“The upsetting part about Annex is the food is amazing and the ambiance is amazing, but it is overruled by the noise,” she said. “My ears hurt. My throat hurts from trying to talk across the table.”

If she wants to go there, she’ll get takeout (or her secret hack: Get takeout and eat it next door at the quieter The Red Room bar also inside the Pardini’s Catering building).

Restaurants seem so loud these days because their design has changed.

Carpets, drapes, tablecloths, soft banquettes and other soft surfaces that absorb sound have gone out of style.

Today, the popular designs tends to amplify sound, noted Craig Johnson. He is part owner of The Howlin Wolf and Goldstein’s Mortuary & Delicatessen, but he’s also a general contractor who has designed and built restaurants.

“The big problem with all the restaurants is that they have hard surfaces, polished concrete floors, brick,” he said. “Anything that’s hard, noise is going to bounce off of.”

Open kitchens that broadcast every clank and sizzle contribute to the problem. A bar that’s not separate from the dining room can mean drunk conversations and rattling cocktail shakers intrude on diners’ conversations.

And a newer restaurant is more likely to have a big open dining room instead of smaller private spaces that absorb sound.

“It’s got parallel walls, so sound will bounce off left to right and it gets really noisy,” Johnson said, noting that’s why auditoriums designed for good sound often have angled walls or stepped ceilings to break up sound waves.

A “nonissue?”

But is a noisy restaurant always a bad thing?

Restaurant Libelula near the Crest Theatre downtown gets raves reviews for its food — and comments about the sound level.

The restaurant has extra-tall ceilings that can make sound echo. It plays music — punk, rock ‘n’ roll and riot grrrl tunes — at a level that some diners have asked workers to turn down, said owner Ian Cookson.

“It’s a more positive energy to walk into a place where people look like they’re enjoying themselves,” he said. “I want to feel something when I walk into a space.”

He doesn’t want to walk into a dead quiet restaurant, “because then I’m going to be creeped out,” he said. “It’s sort of a nonissue to me.”

People should be talking and toasting and having a good time, he said. That wouldn’t be appropriate for a romantic, candlelight dinner type of place, but that’s not what Libelula is, he said.

Of course, tolerances for sound vary by person. Loud restaurants can be particularly tough for older customers or people who are hard of hearing.

It all depends upon what customers are looking for, noted Jimmy Pardini, chef and founder of Annex Kitchen.

“I think some people look for a more lively environment and some people want a more intimate environment,” he said. “Annex definitely falls into the category for more lively.”

(Another hack at Annex: When making a reservation, say you want a quieter table, he said. There are a few available.)

After Annex first opened, Pardini said they noticed the noise level and put acoustic panels on the ceiling to dampen some of it. They took sound into account when opening Annesso too, but ended up using lots of hard surfaces, which can contribute to the sound levels, he said.

“The big social atmosphere has worked for us,” he said. “We do listen to feedback, of course, but there’s only so much we can do.”

Studies show

Scientists have studied sound levels and their affect on eating and drinking.

One study found that people chew faster when fast-tempo music is played.

Another — in a bar, not a restaurant — found people drink more beer when louder music is playing — 31% more. They also drink faster. They were more charged up and it was harder to talk, so they drank instead. So theoretically, louder music could equal more beer sales.

Some in a New York Times story said fast music cranked up loud gets people to eat faster and leave, with the business making more money when newcomers take over their table.

What can be done?

There are things both restaurants and diners can do to combat noise.

A free app with a decibel meter, Soundprint, can be downloaded onto phones. It uses crowdsourcing to show users how loud restaurants are at certain times.

It also has a search function helps you find restaurants near you and how they rank — quiet, loud, very loud, etc.

At Howlin Wolf (which is a cocktail bar with live music, not a restaurant), the workers taking drink orders have sometimes struggled to talk with customers during loud moments, said Johnson.

He put up some decorative panels on the wall made of foam to absorb sound. The cocktail servers told him that helped.

Still, “sometimes you’re stuck with what the room is,” he said.

As for restaurateurs, Debbi Wilson slogged through the sound issue when she owned The Gastro Grill, the brick-and-mortar restaurant in Clovis.

She’s since sold the restaurant and now runs the food truck of the same name. But she remembers being surprised by how loud the restaurant was the first time it was full of people. It made her anxious.

So she and her partner called in some sound specialists. The estimate to fix the entire problem was thousands upon thousands of dollars. It including breaking through the ceiling to install sound-absorbing material.

They couldn’t afford that, so they did what they could. They put sound-dampening foam under the tables and the bar, even on the backs of the pictures hanging on the walls. They turned down the music.

But still, complaints about the noise level rolled in on online reviews. It was frustrating for Wilson, especially since they didn’t have much money left after getting the restaurant open.

“If you’re loaded, if you’re not a small business, you can make it happen,” she said. “It would be great if customers understood what it takes to change that. It seems like a small thing, but it’s not.”