You know the feeling.
Mid-thought, your conversation partner’s eyes slowly drift upward, above your drinks and toward huge screens docked overhead.
Televisions — they’re everywhere. They gleam at us in gas stations and hotel bathrooms. But I can no longer stand them in bars and restaurants in Chicago.
We live in a city that has carefully carved out a corner of the culinary world. Bartenders delight in their craft concoctions; restaurateurs create experiences. Much thought goes into what we are about to enjoy when we hold the stem of a glass or pick up a fork.
So why are we diluting this experience by dotting every place with screens?
“I absolutely see a lot more here and in more unexpected places than in other cities,” said Chandra Ram, editor of Plate, a Chicago-based magazine that covers the industry nationally.
Let’s clear one thing up — I’m not talking about sports bars. I know we are a proud sports city. Sports bars serve a valiant purpose, and that is to let you watch the Golf Channel and ESPN at the same time.
And I even understand that screens are a welcome distraction for travelers and a comfort for those sipping solo. They’re also a helpful baby sitter for families trying to have a night out.
But what about haunts boasting innovative drinks and walls of wine? When the now-closed Kings County Tap opened last year, its rustic brick and industrial design was interrupted by screens hanging over the bars. At Blackfinn in River North, televisions seem like distracting ornaments hung from the ceiling in a space otherwise built for conversation. The Hubbard Inn’s cozy, cavernous atmosphere offers televisions alternating between black-and-white movies and sports. In similar spots around Chicago, great care obviously went into tabletop textures. Yet televisions are crammed into bookcases alongside knickknacks and tomes.
Why, in a city with menus that change daily and chefs who bike to farmers markets to experiment with local produce, do we let thoughtfulness cease when it comes to ambience? Screens dilute the delightful dining and drinking experiences we’re celebrated for. Would you want your cocktail in the carefully Tiki-themed Three Dots and a Dash reflecting the glare of a screen? An Old Fashioned at Billy Sunday, or brunch at the cozy, eclectic Lula Cafe, accompanied with a side of blaring lights and white noise?
This isn’t the case in every city. In New York or San Francisco, cozy corners might be left alone, luxuriating in their rustic aesthetic. In Washington, televisions only occasionally populate bars, tuned to CNN.
And the ethos of the West Coast, Ram said, “(is) more focused on people and not things. Even if you look at the decor and the design, a television doesn’t aesthetically fit in.”
So, as she points out, “if it’s about paying attention to the ingredients and a very personal, individual experience, the opposite of that is a group of people staring slack-jawed at a TV set.”
Chicago has adventurous decor and design. But in a city where, at any given time, a major sports team could be playing, Ram notes, “you have situations where, in unexpected places, people are watching games.”
Recently, she and her husband were dining at a beautifully designed Evanston restaurant, “filled with this crazy-but-perfect mix of art and vintage sofas and midcentury modern lamps.”
Still, a television was present and beckoning, next to an Oscar Wilde quote on a chalkboard. Soon enough, every table in the restaurant was glued to the game.
Chicagoans’ appetite for screens is forcing owners to think outside of the big, black box.
Where, and whether, to put flat screens was on Robert Finkel’s mind when he opened Forbidden Roots brewpub in West Town, which he describes as “the antithesis of a sports bar.” He didn’t want screens. But he knew he couldn’t lose customers during the playoffs. So he keeps two retractable televisions hidden behind the chalkboards that list beers. And his rule? They will almost always remain hidden — emerging only for a playoff game.
More Top Picks Best Saucepans
“Our philosophy, in building out the space, was to make sure it was all about being able to connect,” he said. “I don’t want you to see a TV. I don’t want you even thinking about a TV.”
No one has asked for the remote. In fact, “I’ve probably had 30 people hug me,” Finkel said.
And there are places that buck the practice altogether — and reap the benefits of being an oasis from talking heads and scrolling scores.
On the windows of the Duke of Perth on Clark Street, owner Colin Cameron advertises that the bar is a TV-free zone.
“I wanted it to be a proper pub, where friends go and hang out and talk,” Cameron said. “It’s a conversation killer.” Yelp reviews laud the lack of TVs. But he does get questions about soccer and rugby.
Sports finally crumbled the resolve of Steve McDonagh of The Hearty Boys.
When the restaurateurs opened Spritz Burger with chef Gale Gand, they argued about TVs for months.
“I’ve always felt really strongly about not having a television in a restaurant, because I really want to encourage conversation,” McDonagh said. “We didn’t for a long time.”
But he eventually succumbed to this reality: They were serving burgers and beer near Wrigley Field.
“We were slaughtered” on game nights, he said. “If (diners) were going to leave the house, they wanted to make sure they were near a TV.”
Their window advertised “now with televisions” to assure Chicagoans they wouldn’t have to choose between by-the-minute scores and actually conversing during a night out.
“I didn’t want to give in,” McDonagh said, “but we just couldn’t compete with sports.”
During a recent Hubbard Street stroll, I peeked into bars, planning to compile a count of screens or screen-free. No need to keep track, though — with backgrounds varying from $5 fireball signs to Edison bulbs and birdcage lamps, they all boasted an eye-assaulting collection of Technicolor.
After all, as McDonagh told me, “That’s just how it works in Chicago.”
Twitter @byalisonbowen
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #144A7C;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Food & Dining Photos and Video”;
display: block;
font: 700 23px/25px Georgia,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
var tid; function dosearch() {
if (tid) { window.clearTimeout(tid); }
tid = window.setTimeout(function(){console.log(“Search”);
postMessage(“search#”+document.getElementById(‘searchbox’).value,”*”);},800);
}
div.video_header {
width:100%;
clear:both;
border-top:3px solid black;
}
div.video_header h3 {
font-size: 24px;
margin: 10px;
color: #000;
font-family: Georgia,’Droid Serif’,serif;
}
div.video_header div.vuemix_video {
width:50%;
float:left;
}
div.vuemix_search {
float:right;
width:40%;
}
div.video_header input {
text-align: right;
font-size: 20px;
border: 0;
font-weight: 200;
outline: none;
letter-spacing: 1px;
margin: 10px;
padding:0px 25px 0px 0px;
clear:left;
float:right;
background-image: url(/2016/08/08/tvs-in-chicago-bars-and-restaurants-driving-us-to-distraction/&);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: right top;
}
.embed-container {
position: relative;
padding-bottom: 19.56%;
height: 0;
overflow: hidden;
max-width: 100%;
border-top:1px solid #bbbbbb;
clear: both;
}
.embed-container iframe,
.embed-container object,
.embed-container embed {
position: absolute;
top: -10;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
@media screen and (max-width: 480px) {
.embed-container {
padding-bottom: 180%;
}
}
//d3ik2vfsvyg6fu.cloudfront.net/js/vuemix.all.tca.js
window.onload = function() { vxconfig(“vuemix”,{market:”www.chicagotribune.com”,playlist:”ct-dailymeal”,layout:”autoblurb”,linkenable:false,clickexp:true,oneclick:true}); }