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Abstract
Are expert aesthetic judgments of restaurants shaped by sound and music? Although sound is an important design element in built spaces devoted to consumerism, such as restaurants, it is a typically overlooked aesthetic structure. This project analyzes how widely read and influential food writing help the general public define the acceptable repertoire of music and sound in restaurants. I draw on a sample of restaurant reviews that appear in the LexisNexis archives of the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times from January 1, 1998, until December 31, 2010. Specifically, I examine 1,208 reviews written by thirteen reviewers in the San Francisco Chronicle and 598 reviews written by four reviewers in the New York Times. I connect critics' evaluations of sound in fine-dining establishments to the emplacement of those practices within New York City and San Francisco. By doing so, this project explores how place-based background aesthetics mediate expert opinion and facilitate consumption in the city.
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Notes on contributors
John T. Lang
John T. Lang is an assistant professor of sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. He has a PhD in sociology from Rutgers University. His major research interest is the sociological study of food as a lens for investigating questions that lie at the intersection of multiple areas like consumption, culture, risk, trust and the environment. Dr. Lang's work has been published in journals such as Food Policy, Gastronomica, The International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Risk Analysis and AgBioForum. Department of Sociology, M-26, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA ([email protected]).