Auto-Play Music on Restaurant Sites Must Die

Cliff House [Photo: Flickr/wallyg]

Since we're under new management, we here at Eater would like to resurrect an old tradition of shaming restaurants into taking auto-play music off their websites. Music on a restaurant site is a no-good, very bad idea that never has any acceptable use in polite, modern society, where some of us look at restaurant websites at work or while we're trying to listen to our own music. Good food is never enhanced by awful music, and so we've decided to publicly call out these offenders so that they'll remove the tunes immediately in exchange for being dropped from this list. It's time to take our ears back, folks.

The first restaurants that need to be called out for this party foul are the recalcitrant ones who did not take auto-play music off their sites despite Eater's best efforts to rescue your auditory canals some years ago. The website for the Cliff House evokes a moody Irish countryside, with the insistent sounds of wailing violins—not a smart move if they're trying to get locals to take the place seriously. Over at Level III, someone assumed that some faux-sensual downtempo noodling would get prospective diners hot and bothered enough to make a quick reservation, but it really just accentuates some undesirable douchery. And hey, Amélie, if banjo-strumming reinterpretations of Soundgarden is your plan for repelling customers, it's working.

Consider this a public service announcement: If and when you come across local restaurants and bars who insist on having auto-play music on their sites, do kindly drop a tip in the tip jar so that we can give them the public shaming they deserve.

· Eater Hall of Shame: Restaurant Websites With Auto Music [~ ESF ~]