How Loud Is Your Restaurant?

Variety's Dana Harris has launched a new feature on her The Knife restaurant blog: The Noise-O-Meter.

She's started taking the above device, Radio Shack's "Digital-Display Sound Level Meter," to restaurants in order to measure how loud the lunchtime crowds really are:

"Although it looks a little like one of Radio Shack's original cell phones, it's still small enough to discreetly measure the decibel range of any location," she writes.

Early results: Pizzeria Mozza hit 78-84 dBs, or a "diesel truck 40 mph," on a recent Wednesday lunch. Tinto measured 68-73 dBs, equivalent to a vacuum cleaner, on a Monday night. The Bowery wound up at 78-82 dBs, or a "garbage disposal at 3 feet," on a Sunday night.