TV is NOT on the Menu


In my world, there is no place for a TV in a restaurant.  I’m not talking sports bar, I’m talking about an actual restaurant (tables, chairs, silverware, etc.) where one goes for food, ambiance, and to enjoy the company of others.  I think a TV takes away from the restaurant experience and distracts the diner from all of the fore mentioned items by switching their attention to some rectangle on the wall.

I go to restaurants mainly for the food. I cook nearly every night and there are times I welcome the break. When I go to a restaurant I really want to relax and enjoy the conversation and not get sucked in to whatever the place wants to air, be it sports, the news, game shows, or reality television. I want to hang out and talk with the people I came in with. I’ve seen it so many times where a whole table will be silent with all of their heads pointed in the direction of the TV. Now if a restaurant really sucks, they may want to distract people away from the shitty food and/or service. Lucky for me, I rarely go to places that suck.

Now a bar is a different animal. A TV in a bar is mostly acceptable if it falls into one of a few different categories: Sports bar, public house, or dive bar. Bars are often places people may stop in alone and a TV helps to ease any awkwardness about not feeling like you have to talk to someone or the fact you are alone. Now if a restaurant has a separate bar and the TV is not in eyesight and hopefully not earshot of the dining room, that too can be cool.

One of my favorite places to go at the beach has a TV at the bar that only plays old surfing movies. While I dig the movies, I get even more sucked into them than I would to anything else. Again, great to go if I’m alone, but not at all when I’m with other people.

I’m starting to feel that maybe it’s just that I dislike TV altogether. We are an odd household in this day and age because we have only one TV in the house. That’s the way I like it. I know folks love having TVs all over the house so they can always stay connected, that’s just not how I roll. I would kind of like a TV out in the barn, but even that would be a bit borderline. Don’t even get me started on TVs in the bedroom. A bedroom is for two things, and TV watching is NOT one of them. If a TV is mandatory for you in the bedroom, you may need to reassess a few things.

The long and the short of it is that TVs in restaurants distract the diner’s attention away from what a restaurant’s true objectives, in my opinion, should be. Those objectives are great food and great service in an enjoyable atmosphere, TV not included.

Ciao down,
Penn

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