How To Ruin Your Restaurant With TV, Part 2

In our last installment, admittedly not labeled as such, the quiet tearoom and tatami mat atmosphere of Do Won was shattered by the Lost in Translation-like interjection of a big screen TV playing CNN and Judge Judy into the middle of the restaurant. Our next one takes place a few blocks south on Lincoln...

Pueblito Viejo has been there approximately a million years that I've lived here in Chicago, but somehow I never went there, even as I tried all sorts of less imposing and more ephemeral things around it. Something about the exterior look, which suggests the most stereotypical sort of Dos Sombreros de Señor Guacamole Mexican restaurant (though it is, in fact, Colombian). And few others have ever seemed to have tried it either, despite the fact that G Wiv has hinted once or twice that the outré decor, which involves staff dressed in white like Juan Valdez and plastic leaves and flowers stapled to every imaginable surface, offered cartoonish fakiness of a highly amusing sort. (The plastic alligators in the men's room would have made a nice Guess the Restaurant clue if I'd had my camera with me.)

So I took the kids there recently. As our eyes adjusted to the dark and we began to see stuffed sloths hanging from the fake vines and so on, I was prepared to be charmed... except for one thing. Which I think must be new,* because it would be hard to imagine anyone not commenting upon it, any more than you would mention your new boss and fail to comment upon the fact of a 55-year-old businessman dressed in a girl's prep school uniform.

Pueblito Viejo has the highest concentration of TVs of any restaurant or bar in Chicago. ESPN Zone looks positively monastic next to it. A TV is secreted among the leaves about every 3 feet around the entire restaurant-- 12 or 15 of them in all-- and then a projection TV casts an image eight feet high on the stage, visible to nearly the entire room. The result is not just a lot of televisions, it's an oppressive, sensory-distortion total video environment. To paraphrase the slogan of one of the cable networks, It's Not TV, It's Deprogramming. It's Michael Caine being broken by the Albanians in The Ipcress Files.

Except this being a Latino restaurant, the fare is not psychedelic imagery such as Caine's Harry Palmer endured but an endless stream of cheesily produced music videos in which women in string bikinis dance, cavort, grind, and in one case threaten each other mysteriously with chickens (I kid you not). Thankfully my sons are 7 and 4, so they merely occasionally blurted out things like "Ooooh gross, you can see her butt!" rather than acting like this. If I had waited another five years to come here the result would have been far more unbearable for the adult in the party.

How was the food? Sad to say, pretty good. Quite decent if slightly overmarinated churrasco, decent sides and chimmichurri and salsa, served on a plank a la El Llano. Service was as it often is in places where the nightlife won't be starting for another 3 hours, which is to say, barely a notch above indifferent. But those televisions! Poking out of the very trees and vines of the rainforest like in some David Cronenberg movie in which the technological and the organic become queasily inseparable. The jungle home theater setup of Conrad's Mistah Kurtz. If there's a more vividly, surreally unbearable atmosphere in a Chicago restaurant than this one, I don't know it.

Pueblito Viejo
5429 N Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60625-2222
773-784-9135

* The Reader review mentions that TV blares there but claims only "three" TVs, so obviously the quantity has vastly increased in recent times.

Sounds like one of these might be needed.

I work with a guy who never allowed his kids to watch broadcast TV.He just pressured Son into the Marine Corp and the Daughter into moving out.He and his wife both have bought brand new vehicles and have full digital cable...go figure.Usually when we go to a bar or restaurant that has TV's going,it's noisy anyway.Buy an I-Pod-and a pair of sunglasses.

Buy an I-Pod-and a pair of sunglasses.

Michael Caine just found a nail and kept focusing on the pain as he ground it into his flesh. That seemed to work.

Mike G wrote:Which I think must be new,* because it would be hard to imagine anyone not commenting upon it

The projection TV playing cheesy music videos was there a year and a half ago. We were there late at night and the place had definite nightclub ambiance, bouncer and all, despite being practically empty. I don't remember the other TVs, but concentrating on my food, and being distracted by all the rest of the decor, I might not have noticed.

HI,

Your experience reminds me of a restaurant visit I intended to post about, then forgot.

I took my eldest niece to Pico Rico ostensibly to discuss her plans for college. When we walked in at the furthest section of the restaurant seating area by the open kitchen was a televised soccer game. The volume was way up there to allow the cooks to share in the excitement of the game while preparing meals. There would be occasional happy hoots coming from the kitchen when the narrative gave them something to hoot about. They otherwise could not see the picture because it was facing into the dining area. Meanwhile there was atmospheric Ecuadorian music with a strong bass tempo to make us feel like we're in Ecuador watching a soccer game with the stereo on.

As we were enjoying our meal with very little conversation because who could hear themselves think. A family walked in taking a table in the corner by the front. Apparently the children's favorite cartoon show was on, which the owner cheerfully accomodated by turning on the television at the raised counter where restaurant bills are settled. He not only found the children their show, he made sure they could see it at their table and yes, turned up the volume nice and loud.

No conversation is possible at our table, because our voices are competing with the loud soccer game, loud upbeat Ecuadorian music and a favorite cartoon show turned up loud. Some small accomodations were made when the owner turned off the Ecuadorian atmospheric music.

I guess the food was ok, though I hardly remember it.

Cathy, take away the kid show and that sounds like a fun way to watch some football! The food might be an afterthought but I really enjoy watching the Central American league games.

If I had waited another five years to come here the result would have been far more unbearable for the adult in the party.

Oh, I don't know about that. Teenagers are pretty self-conscious about acting cool in public, on the one hand, and hardly need any specific pretext to be humiliated by and disapproving of their parents. So I doubt if the TVs would have made much difference if your kids were, or were not, motivated to behave like B & B. For my kids I think the conscious role models were more Bart Simpson and Britney Spears - I eagerly look forward to hearing who replaces them in your kids sub-generation. (One strives to be non-judgemental and supportive...). I wonder if the dominance of names beginning with B has any meaning.

Anyway, I tend to see this more in the context of all places becoming increasingly noisy. Hey, it is a form of marketing and it appears to work. A quiet, empty place seems sad, and a little uncomfortable; a noisy empty place may be annoying, but it does not feel sad or so empty.

Personally, I do find the noise level aggravating in a lot of places, and the TVs distracting.

Is MTV the biggest cultural force in America over the last 20 years?

dicksond wrote:Is MTV the biggest cultural force in America over the last 20 years?

That or Fox News, I'm not sure which irritates me more when eating.

I personally enjoyed Mike Sula's description of the multiple television phenomenon at, I think, Candlelite. He referred to them as "cathode teats." Brilliant.

trixie-pea wrote:I personally enjoyed Mike Sula's description of the multiple television phenomenon at, I think, Candlelite. He referred to them as "cathode teats." Brilliant.

Does that mean it is okay, or even expected, to lick the screens? Probably a good idea for Moto or Alinea: TV as foodstuff.

Bruce, I think Fox News is actually pretty derivative, though I also find it annoying, and often even insulting. But I admit to having that reaction to most news sources. Anyway, it borrows from a few different sources, like Rush and CNN, but aside from combining those sources, it does nothing new or unique. As I see it, anyway, assuming you were serious.

trixie-pea wrote:I personally enjoyed Mike Sula's description of the multiple television phenomenon at, I think, Candlelite. He referred to them as "cathode teats." Brilliant.

I believe Harlan Ellison had it right first, see: The Glass Teat.

I think for way too many, we've been trained from childhood to eat with the companionship of the television rather than of actual family conversation. When eating alone I prefer a newspaper or puzzle to the idiot box, but I may sometimes settle for the pablum of cable "news". The dining establishment that only wishes many to be comfortable will alienate the few.

I find this particular phenomena overly intrusive at ethnic establishments. The blared dialog is infinetly familiar to the tired scripts I want to forget, but the sometimes-partially-understood language entices me want to classify the outrageous media mode. It is not polite to speak foreign tongue in front of guests, they always think you're talking about them.

I've been sent running out of restaurants screaming and waving my arms in the air by live musicians. I've eaten in joints where I've pleaded that they turn down the music or sometimes just tune the radio station in correctly. Are so many blind, deaf, and dumb?

I'd like to be distracted only by the food and the companionship I see fit to share with. Why should this be a problem?

-ramon

An interesting discussion.

A topic that often arose with my twenty-something psychology grad students was the role of overstimulation in maladaptive behavior among children and adolescents. While the discussions never reached a consensus, there was a general acknowledgement of the risk generated by 1) a decline in the socializing influence of parental engagement (importantly, interaction around meals) and, 2) constant media presence, representing a pathway to overstimulation and emotional numbing. Along this line of thinking, Mike, your presence is the key protective factor, no matter how uncool you may potentially be to your future teens.

I've noticed that when, like Ramon, I find myself needing a harmonious place to eat, I tend to seek out Japanese restaurants. Often, these are solo meals. Curiously, it seems that overstimulation is more of an issue for me when I am by myself than when I am with others. On one such occasion, I was dining at Katsu. The presence of a perfect autumn branch of red maple leaves was all the entertainment I needed. Well, that and the yellowtail cheeks. . .

dicksond wrote:

trixie-pea wrote:I personally enjoyed Mike Sula's description of the multiple television phenomenon at, I think, Candlelite. He referred to them as "cathode teats." Brilliant.

Does that mean it is okay, or even expected, to lick the screens? Probably a good idea for Moto or Alinea: TV as foodstuff.

Bruce, I think Fox News is actually pretty derivative, though I also find it annoying, and often even insulting. But I admit to having that reaction to most news sources. Anyway, it borrows from a few different sources, like Rush and CNN, but aside from combining those sources, it does nothing new or unique. As I see it, anyway, assuming you were serious.

I find Fox News to be more intrusive and invasive to my aural space. I find as I get older I want less distractions not more.

eatchicago wrote:Sounds like one of these might be needed.

I bought one of those! I tested it out only one time, ironically, at Pico Rico. They just kept turning the TV back on with looks of bewilderment.

I thought I had it in me to act like some sort of science fiction character, zapping away at all this auditory drivel. But the fact is that I didn't have the heart to screw up the joy....no,no....the LOVE, that TV often creates for the patrons and employees that frequent and work at these types of restaurants.

If anybody is interested, I'd be more than happy to give them my TV-B-Gone since it does nothing more than sit on a shelf these days, anxiously awaiting to be used by a more willing enforcer of the peace.

First come, first serve.

PIGMON wrote: But the fact is that I didn't have the heart to screw up the joy....no,no....the LOVE, that TV often creates for the patrons and employees that frequent and work at these types of restaurants.

I'd love to take up the cause but I'm afraid my cape is at the cleaners.

-ramon

PIGMON wrote:

eatchicago wrote:If anybody is interested, I'd be more than happy to give them my TV-B-Gone since it does nothing more than sit on a shelf these days, anxiously awaiting to be used by a more willing enforcer of the peace.

Wow, eatchicago and PIGMON! I didn't know such a thing existed. I could have a lot of fun with my parents (who are financial market news-obsessives) using such a device.':twisted:' A partial solution is to banish the TV from one's own home. I did that fairly recently, and I find that my tolerance for random TV has not plummeted. In fact, I now view it with somehwat more detachment (at least, that is, if relatives are not manning the remote).

I think for way too many, we've been trained from childhood to eat with the companionship of the television rather than of actual family conversation. When eating alone I prefer a newspaper or puzzle to the idiot box, but I may sometimes settle for the pablum of cable "news".

Gee, I always thought that one ate with the TV on, and while reading, or maybe surfing the Internet.

At some point in my distant past I went a year or two with very little exposure to US TV. When I returned I discovered two things, which are probably still true even if I have not checked them out recently.

- The visual component of TV is often wonderful, spectacular. The sound is usually banal, and annoying (Bruce, this does not apply to Fox News or almost all talking heads where the visual and aural are both totally boring, of course).
- Commercials are the much more visually interesting than the actual TV shows since they pack so much into those 30 seconds.

So, for a few months while I was acclimating, my TV watching often consisted of viewing commercials with the sound off.

A topic that often arose with my twenty-something psychology grad students was the role of overstimulation in maladaptive behavior among children and adolescents. While the discussions never reached a consensus, there was a general acknowledgement of the risk generated by 1) a decline in the socializing influence of parental engagement (importantly, interaction around meals) and, 2) constant media presence, representing a pathway to overstimulation and emotional numbing.

I don't know, Josephine. That wisdom has been around for ever, that TV and the disintegration of the nuclear family are primary contributors to a lot of society's ills, and disaffected individuals' specific problems. Almost from the advent of TV, people have been saying that, which causes me to think it is more of an urban legend that strikes some chord in us (TV bad, family dinner good, yeah!), rather than truly the cause of a lot of the things it gets blamed for. We feel guilty about watching TV, and not being Norman Rockwell nuclear families, so we lie a bit about what we really do, feel guilty, and bad mouth the behavior.

TV is a refuge of the lonely and disaffected, so it could as easily be effect as cause that is being measured. And the links between amount of TV being watched and various behavioral and intelligence measures have not been terribly consistent from study to study, have they? Now there is even beginning to be some conflicting data on the effect of TV on attention span, which had seemed to be a more clear relationship in the past. TV seems to be good training for multi-tasking which is more and more the norm and if one measures attention as the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time, or in quick succession, TV-watchers do better.

I do agree about the importance of engagement and involvement with kids, but while dinner without TV is one way to do that, it is far from the only way.

dicksond wrote:- The visual component of TV is often wonderful, spectacular. The sound is usually banal, and annoying (Bruce, this does not apply to Fox News or almost all talking heads where the visual and aural are both totally boring, of course).
- Commercials are the much more visually interesting than the actual TV shows since they pack so much into those 30 seconds.

So, for a few months while I was acclimating, my TV watching often consisted of viewing commercials with the sound off.

One of my longstanding jokes at home is that I almost always watch TV commercials with the sound off and that the 1957 Nobel prize in Physics went to Wolfgang Mute for his invention of the mute button (people always seem to believe me).
What a magnificent stroke of brilliance....one of those things that improves our overall quality of life in the developed world.

Talking heads visually boring?

Clearly you need to read about TV's Aryan Sisterhood

Also, is anyone here depraved enough, as I am, to watch cooking shows while eating dinner alone?

Gleam
When I had cable, I used to watch cooking shows/food network only when I had no food in the house. The some reason it gave me perverse satisfaction to nibble on my toast and cheese and watch gorgeous meals being whipped up.