I am constantly asked what I think is the best restaurant in town, a question I usually duck by asking for more specifics, like what time of day are you looking to dine and how much are you willing to spend? In truth, one of my personal favorites is not necessarily the one I recommend the most often, because several folks I’ve sent to City House questioned by judgment afterward, complaining that it’s too loud and too salty. So now when I suggest it, I just say, “Take off your rings before you go, speak up to your date and have a great time!” (I do sort of miss F. Scott’s, because I could always suggest that one without reservation or fear of later reprisal. Personally, I’ll take "loud and salty" any day.)
But the issue of noise in restaurants is a real one, and as I get older I’ve realized that I can always bring some reading glasses to help peruse the menu in low light, but unless I’m willing to carry an ear horn, background noise is likely to become be an issue. Enter a relatively new website and app called SoundPrint, which purports to be sort of a Yelp for restaurant noise. Using a downloadable app that includes a decibel meter, users can contribute to lists of local restaurants ranked by noise level.
Whether you’re looking for a quiet coffee shop to study or work in, or a place for a first date where you can actually converse with a potential beau, SoundPrint offers compiled lists produced from user data. Nashville happens to be one of the national cities with a featured list on the front page of the SoundPrint website, so I checked out the roster of supposedly quiet spots.
SoundPrint’s stated policy is “to only list Quieter venues — we do not specifically name or call out louder venues as our goal is to work with and not against the louder venues.” So I understand that they are at the mercy of user data. While there were definitely some venues on the list that I would consider excellent choices for a cozy date night (Caffe Nonna, The Standard at Smith House, Valentino’s), and I agree that Rumours East is certainly quiet, since it has been closed since May and hadn’t reopened as Edesia yet (which SoundPrint does acknowledge on the website — so why leave it on the list?), I have to wonder which users have been clicking on their apps at The Old Spaghetti Factory and thinking, “Now this is an intimate spot for a first date.” The last time I dined there, late last year, it was still a zoo, 20 years after I had last thought about going there.
SoundPrint has a particular affinity for helping those with hearing difficulties, and they suggest that users don’t even need to dine at a restaurant to get a reading. Just walk in and tell the host(ess) that you’re trying to find good places for the hard-of-hearing to eat at. As a person of age, I know that this will become more important to me over time, so maybe some of you tech-savvy whippersnappers could download the app and start compiling lists of places I really enjoy dining at. Y’know, like Shoney’s, Piccadilly and other spots that offer AARP discounts.
