DINNER SHOW
From burger joints to gourmet dining, TVS pop up everywhere we eat
Television sets are not just for sports bars any more. Restaurants that serve everything from fast food to gourmet fare are setting up flat screens in their dining rooms.
The Fifth, an ultra-modern restaurant and lounge which opened recently in downtown Orlando, has two screens at the bar and two high above diners’ tables. Four Rivers’ new barbecue restaurants have two TVs apiece in their dining rooms. Many McDonald’s restaurants have added TVs, too.
Falling prices are driving the trend, as has the ability to mountflat screen televisions directly onto walls. Andsince many people nowoften have their eyes fixed on a screen of some sort, installing them in eateries seems logical to many.
“I think it’s the culture of growing up with the TVon all the time,” said Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant consultant with Ohio-based WDPartners.
Even though many places keep the sound muted, Lombardi warns that in the wrong setting, TV can hurt the dining experience.
“I think sometimes they put them in there without a full appreciation or awareness of what percentage of the customers want that,” he said.
In fact, several people eating out last week at places with TVs in the background said they didn’t see the need for them.
“I don’t go to lunch to watch TV,” said Steve Kania, a CPA from Tampa dining at the Fifth. “I want to get away from TVs when I go out to a restaurant.”
Even so, Justin Sullivan, the Fifth’s director of operations, said the sports events and videos that play in the
background add to the atmosphere.
“It’s important to have something to look at,” he said. “In Orlando, especially the downtown ... if you don’t have a TV, we wouldn’t be able to compete with anybody.”
Four Rivers founder John Rivers said flat screens bring more energy to his three barbecue restaurants, including one that opened in Winter Park recently to replace the original nearby.
“It creates a lot of motion and movement in the room,” he said. Still, he added, “we haven’t bombarded the room with TVs.”
The televisions at his establishments are tuned to ESPN and Food Network.
During lunchtime last week, Lola Giunta of Orlando snuck a few peeks at “Barefoot Contessa,” a cooking show. Her mother, Cindy Crowe, disapproved.
“I’d just as soon it not be here,” Crowe said. “You’ve got TVs at home. ... I don’t think TVs belong in a restaurant.” But Giunta, 27, disagreed. “It just gives us something to do,” she said. “We’re not going to talk while our mouths are full.”
John Andrich, owner of Café Murano in Altamonte Springs, said customers haven’t complained about three 50-inch screens in his main dining room.
“We never get someone who says, Will` you turn the television off?’” Aldrich said. “You have some who say maybe the news isn’t appropriate right now, can we watch something else?’”
Fast-food restaurants also have started adding televisions. ManyMcDonald’s stores now have them, along with Wi-Fi, to encourage customers to linger. The sets are typically tuned to news show, although some, including a race-themed McDonald’s on South Semoran Boulevard, air sports.
McDonald’s has also started testing its ownin-house channel with newsandentertainment programming. Wendy’s, meanwhile, has also started testing TVs, although it won’t give details.
At the same time, sports bars, which have showed games on televisions for years, are upgrading their video options.
Buffalo Wild Wings in the Orlando area has increased the size of its flat screens to up to 80 inches. That’s in addition to 35-foot-wide projection screens.
Therestaurants have to compete not only with other sports bars, but what people can watch in their own homes, said Andrew Gross, who runs Buffalo Wild Wings franchises in the Orlando area.
“We’re also trying to entice people to come out of their house and watch it in our environment,” he said. “The TVs in the houses are getting bigger. If somebody can put 60-inch plasma in his house …I want to be better than what they have.”