Mikey Doesn't Like It

For the Love of God, Mr. Bauer Would Like Everyone to Please Turn Down the Music

The bar at Locanda.
The bar at Locanda. Photo: Georg Lester/Grub Street

As many of you already know, one of the pet obsessions of Chronicle critic Michael Bauer, and a good number of his fans, is the noise level in a restaurant. The paper even has its own unique bell-to-bomb sound rating to alert the aurally sensitive. Today Bauer harps on the topic again, via reader mail, noting that Flour + Water and Locanda have both recently had music turned up far too high to the point that “it dominated the room.” We’ve always felt like the Chron places a lot more emphasis on the noise thing than other big city newspapers, and it really comes down to how old you are, how many concerts you’ve been to, and what your personal preferences are when it comes to a dining experience — a noisy room is a lively room, right? Anyway, the reader points Bauer to an iPhone app that measures decibel levels in a room, and we can bet you Mr. Bauer downloaded that thing already, and may use it against a restaurant in the near future.

I love music, but not in a restaurant
[Between Meals/Scoop]

For the Love of God, Mr. Bauer Would Like Everyone to Please Turn Down the Music