A rant I've been saving

[owlectomy]

Whenever I go out to a very nice restaurant, I feel so churlish about complaining about any aspect of it-- so I think about saying something, and then the other part of my brain answers, "Oh, poor me, I got really good food on someone else's dime!" -- so I don't say anything.

But it needs to be said.

There should not ever be a television playing when you go to a very nice restaurant.

I'm not talking about generic-family restaurants; I'm talking about places where you can pay $100 for a bottle of wine. At both such places I've been in Raleigh... they've had televisions playing. WHY? Do they expect people to be so bored with their dinner companions that they need something else to do? That's why restaurants give crayons to young children, and if you're going out to a wine bar you are presumably not a young child. Is it because people can't tear themselves away from the sports scores or the stock ticker for half an hour? Get a Blackberry, and leave the rest of us alone.
Okay-- it's probably for people who are waiting for their dates to arrive. But still. Bring a book. I can't be the only person who finds it incredibly annoying to have something flickering at the edge of my field of vision. And when I am out to dinner I would like to pretend that football and American politics do not exist.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

And when I am out to dinner I would like to pretend that football and American politics do not exist.

Yes!

I hate TVs everywhere... they drive me nuts. One time we got a flight from central Michigan cancelled & the airline took us in a bus down to Detroit & they played a Yakov Smirnoff video, loud, the whole way. @ stupid o'clock in the morning (our original flight was supposed to leave around 7, I think). Arrrgh.

[danaseilhan.livejournal.com]

Amen!

There's a gadget you can buy that will turn most televisions off--just aim and click. I guess it works on the same principle as a universal remote but it's just a little thing on a keychain. I want one.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

That-- my god, yes. Or rather, no. **TVs and nice restaurants don't go together.** In fact, IMO a properly classy restaurant doesn't have music playing either. The proper accompaniment to food and wine is conversation. I'm just crusty enough to say, the only acceptable accompaniment is conversation. This although the last two places I've eaten at had the experience spoiled slightly by the conversations at the tables behind me, one a run-down of someone's relationship with her currently separated husband, the other some earnest type who kept interrupting the Spanish conversation of the others to tell his friends what a wonderful guy Jesus was.

[danaseilhan.livejournal.com]

I would not want to hear Muzak in a nice restaurant, let's put it that way. I would be all right with classical, though. Nice relaxing ambiance, and you can play it more quietly and still lend something to the atmosphere.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Classic is well enough, except that my regular Nice Restaurant uses the classical radio station. I don't want to hear people talking over the speakers when I eat, especially not there (because it's a small place and the conversational decibel level is quite high enough.) Alas, all the local Japanese restaurants use the radio radio, traffic reports and all.

[danaseilhan.livejournal.com]

Yes, agreed--it has to be some kind of classical Muzak, if there is any such thing, NOT the radio. I barely like listening to the radio at home.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Do not get me started on the restaurants that have pop music and the television going on AT THE SAME TIME...