Page 17 - Delicious - UK (February 2020)
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food for thought.
Charles Spence, an experimental restaurants. It deters all but the most alone? Are you in the middle of an
psychologist at Oxford University, pathological of Instagrammers, and anecdote? A divorce? They know.
there’s something bonding about
Naturally, in a restaurant I want
claims loud music suppresses the
ILLUSTRATION: SAUL HERRERA/GETTY IMAGES you! It could be the world’s best read the menu, as though we’re all to leave happier than when I arrived.
everyone getting out their phones to
to be fed, but more than that, I want
ability to taste. Yes, professor, thank
meal, but I’d hardly notice. I know
I want to hand over the reins of
trying to earn our Brownies badge.
Of course, the most important
places play loud music to keep trade
responsibility for my life for a few
hours. I want to feel welcome,
element of any restaurant is its staff.
brisk, but in my case it’s so brisk I’m
cosseted, adored (ok, you can dial it
The best have a peripheral vision and
in and back out the door in a second.
an almost supernatural ability to
back on that last one). Do that and,
After noise comes light or,
preferably, a lack of it. I enjoy the
in the words of Randy Newman,
sense need. Do you require glasses
topping up? A chat? To be left
crepuscular gloom of some modern
you’ve got a friend in me.
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