whadjasay?

I intend the focus of my posts here to be primarily on local music, so consider this entry an aberration. Yesterday, my department took me out to lunch for a belated birthday celebration. We had wanted to try Chicago Fire, but for some reason they are only open for dinner. I thought it a bit odd to hear of a pizza place that doesn’t do lunch, but perhaps the lunch crowd isn’t so big on that end of J Street, since our substitute restaurant, Gianni’s Trattoria only had about a 10-12 other diners the entire two hours we were there.

However, the primary reason I am writing this is not to review the cuisine – which folks like sac-eats can do much better than I – it’s more to give y’all a couple heads-up warnings. First, that if you want to go to Chicago Fire you’ll have to make it for dinner. Second, it’s probably not a good idea to visit Gianni’s right now, because they are renovating the space next to the restaurant and the entire time we were there they were hammering on the walls, which put a bit of a damper on the affair.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I have developed a bit of an aversion to overly noisy restaurants. I know most newer places are designed to enhance the noisiness – thus, I assume, giving an appearance of being a “happening” place – but when it gets to the point where you have difficulty hearing your companions’ conversation then it becomes an annoyance. Admittedly, after years of playing loud rock and roll my ears aren’t in the greatest shape, but having had my hearing tested not too long ago I know that I have not suffered an overabundance of hearing loss.

Thus, I (and, no doubt, my companions) grow weary of being in a place where half my conversational bon mots consist of “Huh?” or “What?” and constantly craning my neck to point my oh-so-attractive ear directly at my eating companion.

Is it too much to ask these days for a place to eat where you can at least hear the people at your table?