Apparently This Is Why Many Fort Collins Restaurants Get Bad Rap

If ever there were a true case of "don't shoot the messenger," this is it. I'm not the one who thinks, compared to other cities across Colorado, the Fort Collins dining scene is not that great. But many do say so, and it appears a whole slew of Redditors think they know why.

u/__hlm started a thread in the Fort Collins subreddit asking the question, "In your opinion, what could the FoCo restaurant scene be doing better?" And the conversation delved into a topic I wasn't really expecting.

Normally when people want to talk about why a town's restaurants are really great or really awful, the first thing that almost always comes up is diversity and culture, or lack of it. Meaning, how many different ethnicities are represented across a section of dining options? Is it all Mexican and Italian or Chinese? Or is it all just bland "American" food? How much culture is there to sample?

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While Fort Collins' lack of diversity pops up on nearly every Reddit post as a reason for something being this or that - and it does pop up on this thread too - it's not the most hotly debated reason why the Fort Collins food scene leaves diners lacking.

Turns out? Diners can't have good conversations at many restaurants because they can't hear each other. In other words? Many restaurants around town are too loud, lacking the proper acoustics to absorb noise and create a more relaxed atmosphere. I honestly never even thought of this. But know what? Yeah, you do have to shout at your dining companions a lot of the time!

From loud music and TVs to lack of treatment on ceilings and walls - in addition to hard flooring - there's so much background noise your brain needs to filter out to be able to hear in what should otherwise be a normal, enjoyable conversation over dinner.

Many attribute this to the age of a lot of buildings where our most popular restaurants are located, being built in the 60s and 70s when this wasn't something necessarily thought about, and that proper modernization hasn't been done to control the amount of noise you hear. But when you think about some of the newer buildings on the south part of town along Harmony Road, etc., the acoustics do seem much better than, for example, around Old Town.

Even Forbes magazine did a write-up on why it's so important to get the acoustics right in restaurants, and I feel like this is one of those "I was today years old when I learned..." posts, because I never really thought of this. It does now make sense why I prefer some places over others, even subconsciously, based on the noisy clutter.

Think about that next time you're choosing where to dine out.