Long Island's loudest restaurants
Patrons dine at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza restaurant in Woodbury. (Sept. 30, 2011) Credit: Yana Paskova
Welcome to Long Island's loudest restaurants, where they'll skillfully fry rice balls, shrimp tempura -- and your eardrums. Your vocal cords, too. "Not the steak, the hake," you shout at your server.
But not everybody cares about the noise. Michael DeStefano, of Bethpage, a regular at the reverberating Toro Pazzo in Wantagh, can't get enough of the restaurant's namesake chicken dish or its boom-boom-booming scene.
"I've gone to restaurants where I thought I was walking into a cemetery -- too quiet, too dull," DeStefano said. "Here, there's a sense of excitement, of being part of something that's full of energy."
A sonic energy level that may register as earsplitting to some can sound like the ka-ching of a cash register to restaurant owners. "There's some evidence that high noise levels move people through restaurants faster, so you get more revenue per seat," said Rick Neitzel, an expert in environmental noise from the University of Michigan.
"When people have a good time, they make a lot of noise," said Margaret Mueller, co-owner of the rollicking Western-style R.S. Jones in Merrick, which often features live -- and loud -- music.
"My bartenders are the most affected. They tell me they can't hear the customers."
Indeed, it's restaurant employees, not casual diners, who suffer most from the daily dose of decibels, chancing hearing loss or even cardiovascular disease, according to Neitzel, who cites recent research.
Shelby Poole, owner of the jumping Jackson's in Commack, pronounces her hearing and health just fine, thank you. And she defends the din: "This is not a quiet atmosphere; it's a loud, fun place -- a neighborhood place."
Robert Cahill of Ronkonoma dines at least twice a month at the high-volume Ragazzi in Nesconset, where he favors the angel hair with shrimp and only picks up on good vibrations.
"I love the atmosphere -- it's family-oriented, very friendly, portions are great and it's not too expensive," he said. "I guess I really don't realize that it's noisy."
Here are our picks for noisy but worth-it restaurants on Long Island:
