Restaurants are about more than just food. Ambiance plays a critical role in the dining experience, setting the mood for first dates, celebrations, or casual catch-ups with friends. For some, good ...

September brought mixed results for restaurants. On one hand, the 6.1% sales growth for the month was a 0.4% improvement from August. On the other hand, the industry was unable to return to the strong ...

Have you ever walked into a restaurant fully intending to order that strawberry-walnut with Gorgonzola salad you’ve been dreaming about the whole car ride over, but next thing you know, you’re ...

In my experience, most restaurants play the wrong sort of music. While a lot of thought may have been given to the menu, the wine list, and the service, none whatsoever has been given to the music.

Retail atmospherics is becoming an increasingly important strategic tool for stores and restaurants. Ambient music and background noise are especially important atmospheric elements given their ...

I first discovered ambient music in college, when I was a late-night d.j. My show at the campus radio station started every Thursday at midnight and ran until five. From midnight through two-thirty, I ...

William Basinski’s “Melancholia II” sounds like what might happen if despair itself walked into a studio and someone pressed the record button. Little pops poke through its smeared dreariness, like a ...

Sometimes, you just have a feeling from the street that a restaurant isn’t for you: forced valet cordoning off an otherwise-empty lot, or perhaps a surfeit of BMWs parked outside when you only have ...

The dining experience is a holistic one that starts the moment a customer enters your establishment. This includes everything about the restaurant’s ambiance—from the interiors to the music, welcoming ...