Bring back the ceilings in restaurants

by Wendy
(Charlotte, NC)

It was a bit of a novelty that the establishments were ceiling-less with exposed duct work, sometimes painted a complimentary color to the décor and sometimes left natural.

But now I ask, where have all of the ceilings gone? Besides Six Pence, I do not think we have been to an establishment with a ceiling. It has actually become a joke between Jim and me. As we walk into a place, we immediately look up and say “nope” and laugh.

Why is this an issue?

1. It is not unique any more. When every place has the same atmosphere, there’s no variety. You can argue that the different establishments have different décor, different colors, theme, ambiance, flooring, etc. Yes, this is true, but all of these restaurants and bars have the same overall feeling of vastness and openness. That feel is the same in each place (so far almost all of the places we’ve been) that has the open ceiling.

2. It is loud. Open ceilings encourage noise to carry on and on. Jim and I dined at an Italian restaurant a few weeks ago and there was no ceiling and wood floors. We could not hear ourselves over a party that was occurring on the other side of the restaurant. If your restaurant is in a similar situation, you need to invest in rugs and cloth wall coverings and cloth bunches to stuff under the tables to absorb noise.

3. It is not cozy. Maybe cozy isn’t your ambiance choice and that’s fine. However, if it is, and you do not have a ceiling, then the atmosphere of your restaurant and bar is not cozy. Not having a ceiling promotes a feeling of open and vastness and relative coldness and not warmth and comfort. Go to Six Pence and feel how warm and cozy it is with the low, tin like ceilings and then go to your establishment and see if you feel the same way.

4. It’s kind of ugly. There are so many different, beautiful ways to dress a ceiling. Look at the Sistine Chapel! A bit of an exaggeration, I know, but a painted, or mosaic design or tin tiled ceiling is much prettier and well more interesting than duct work.

You may not be in the position to hire a contractor to rebuild your ceiling, but the next redo or upgrade or even acquisition, consider being unique and add a ceiling.