Some media outlets in the U.S. and U.K. have recently reported on a vegetarian restaurant in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. that features something quite unusual on the menu -- ”silent” dinners, in which no one, neither the customers nor the wait-staff, are permitted to speak for the duration of the meal. The establishment is simply called “Eat” and this policy of silence (which is only in effect once a week when multi-course organic meals are offered), was apparently inspired by one of the owners' visits to a Buddhist monastery in India.
“This is an opportunity for people to experience food as they might not otherwise,” restaurant curator Nicholas Nauman told The Brooklyn Paper. “If we limit our engagement with speech, we can find our consciousness doing other things.”
A report on the restaurant in Vice.com by a journalist named Carey O'Donnell took a decidedly sarcastic view of this experiment in quietude. “Both the chef and the other server maintained a slightly affected placidity throughout dinner,” O’Donnell wrote. “I couldn't decide... if they truly believed in this.” O’Donnell also called the meal “overpriced” and not “life-affirming,” and added how odd the oppressive silence seemed. “I thought to myself as I ate salad that I could have probably purchased at 7-Eleven,” O’Donnell sneered. “I didn't feel impolite staring at other people. In fact, I felt like it was necessary. A few times, while chewing the stale bread, I purposefully locked eyes with a man across the room who looked like an inventor.”
According to the restaurant’s very own website, “Eat” has been in existence for five years (quite a long time in the volatile and highly competitive world of New York City cuisine) and they acquire all their ingredients solely from local organic producers. The silent meals are held on Sunday evening (with reservations required well in advance). Even the non-food items in the place, i.e., the furniture and artwork, are produced by “regional artisans” (I suppose, to somehow add to the ‘Buddhist ambience’ of eating sans-noise).
In Buddhism the concept of silence is intimately linked to depth of thought and mediation – the Buddha himself remained famously silent when asked several profound questions, suggesting that one should explore and find one's own answers to life's most vexing questions and problems. I have never been to this restaurant (as I am neither a vegetarian nor do I like ‘hip’ and ‘trendy’ eateries, particularly those found in gentrified Brooklyn), but this place has the right idea.
Although I feel that absolute silence for several hours over a meal is a tad extreme, I like the idea of a ‘no talking’ rule. We live in a society with constant noise – the rude sounds emanating from televisions, radios, traffic, and, most of all, the loud, nonsensical chatter of obnoxious, vulgar people who like nothing more than the sound of their own idiotic voices. Put simply, too many people talk too much and too loudly in public – thereby ruining the quality of life for those of us who resent having our private space bombarded. In stores, in offices, in trains, in buses, and in restaurants, the cacophony is seemingly endless and without relief. This eccentric restaurant in Greenpoint appears to be throwing down a gauntlet and I applaud them for it.
I should point out that I actually enjoy hearing people talk – as long as they have something interesting or funny or important to say and they know how to speak properly. I especially love people who have beautiful, mellifluous voices; and I am enamored with certain accents.
However, the sad reality in 2013 USA is that the art of conversation has died and most people simply do not know how to talk… yet, they keep on chattering. There are many causes behind this epidemic of verbal diarrhea: one is the omnipresence of TV and mass media, which makes constant chatter seem normal, even a requisite in all human interactions. Indeed, television (where people yak continuously) has not only damaged our communication skills, but has also created a mindset where we are compelled to try to be 'funny' or 'cute' or 'clever' or 'outrageous' every few minutes (i.e., like the laugh-track of TV sitcoms, among other media brainwashing devices).
In a broader context, I think that the mass media-entertainment industry has deformed and corrupted how humans communicate with each other – too many people want to either 'entertain' or 'be entertained'; they have no interest whatsoever in debate, development, learning or growth. In our 24-hour-cable-TV-mass-media-world, the most important things are being “cool” and “popular,” rather than, say, smart, good and kind.
I have known people in my personal life who simply cannot stop talking – to them, chattering equates to breathing and living. In some cases, it amounts to a nervous habit, in others, a desire to dominate and control all social settings. Some of these people (of both sexes, I should note) simply do not know how to converse; that is, carry on a dialogue. Rather, they deliver lengthy, meandering monologues and do not like being interrupted nor overshadowed by anyone or anything else.
Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, another technological development has further eroded our communication abilities: social media and mobile telephony. Instead of speaking, conversing and forming original ideas, a great many people now resort to shortcuts, using such egregious verbal substitutes as “LOL,” “no problem,” “wow” and many other meaningless, annoying terms.
Years ago I rode on an Amtrak train from New York to Boston where the woman passenger in front me must have called two dozen of her friends during the five-hour journey – I noted that in every single “conversation” she repeated the exact same mundane details of her life in the exact same order to all of her listeners. It was like an assembly line of inanity. If I wasn’t so irritated by her, I would have admired her for her ability to perfectly replicate her monologue so perfectly! (Amtrak has since instituted a "quiet car" policy, which they actually enforce).
As for the predilection of too many people talking too loudly in public – I doubt this phenomenon will ever end. In fact, it will only get worse. When I have asked (or demanded) that people in public be quiet, they invariably react negatively. They are almost always outraged by my entreaties – as if THEIR rights are being trampled upon. Since I (usually) seek to avoid unpleasant confrontations, I give up. I am simply fighting against too many powerful, inexorable forces.
Thus, I salute “Eat” and thank God that something in gentrified Brooklyn stands for decency and sanity.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn: A Restaurant Where Silence Is Golden
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