I got my hearing professionally checked today and all is normal. But I have difficulty hearing people I am dining with, talking in restaurants. Is it me, or is the music just too damn loud?!
Might be relevant, but I find that American restaurants are generally louder compared to European ones.
Side note: And why is ithe music always fucking neo-country? Sure, I've mostly been to Texas, but I have several albums in my CD collection as a testament to y'all making good music too.
I'd been to the Lincoln Park location--I think that it's closed now--and it had a very different vibe. I haven't been to the suburban locations. To me, the original location, with it's tiny eating section and dive-bar vibe, is still the best. Almost like if Exit served good food, y'know? (AFAIK, Exit doesn't serve food at all.)
I just moved back to the Chicago land area after being away for 20 years. These places sound like my exact vibe and the sort of places I've been searching for.
My experience in American restaurants is that the music is usually whatever is currently popular, so there's a lot of hip hop and pop songs about dancing and fucking.
The US and it's people are often super loud. I say this as one who traveled and now lives in Japan. I didn't notice right away and had to work hard to lower my normal volume