Can having a “nice” restaurant in the neighborhood ruin your property values?
Neighbors of Gordon Ramsay’s New York restaurant say there is a “stench” coming from the place that is “unbearable.”
From the Daily Mail:
Residents in an elegant apartment block have complained to health inspectors about the stench of duck and bacon from a giant extractor fan.
They are also furious about noise from the fan and an airconditioning unit in the kitchen.
The racket it makes has been measured at 57 decibels, they say – above the limit for local events such as rock concerts.
They claim the row is ruining their sleep and hitting home values.
A single restaurant is doing all of this? Apparently.
“The fan is this giant contraption that looks like a praying mantis, almost two storeys tall, and the smells from it at times are horrifying.“First thing in the morning on the weekend the smell of bacon permeates the air and we can’t open our windows.
“It also is particularly intolerable when they are preparing duck at 3am. His air-conditioning unit sounds like you are riding in the back of a plane, and it can be on 24/7.
“We had one person who moved out and sold his apartment. “
The chef at the restaurant told the Daily Mail that they were unaware of any complaints. Anyone smelled this place? Who knew that the NYC housing bubble would be burst by a stinky restaurant. Complaining about a smell in NYC is like complaining about sand in the desert.
New York neighbours say the stench from Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant is unbearable [Daily News]
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Extractor fans make a TERRIBLE smell. I’ve taught at a boarding school for the past eight summers, and they have a huge one out back behind the dining hall. It releases a kind of sickly-sweet odor that’s noxious beyond compare. I feel sorry for these folks.
57 dB actually sounds a bit low for a limit.
Who on god’s green earth doesn’t like the smell of BACON????!?!? Oh, the humanity!!!!
@morganlh85: It would seem… snooty New Yorkers.
@morganlh85: I hate bacon. I hate eggs too. And I live in Mill valley, CA, not NYC.
Smelly duck at 3am?
Who is eating duck at 3am?
@Huntergreene:
I was thinking the same thing. I went to Wiki and did some research. There is nothing much under decibel, but if you look at “Sound Pressure”, you’ll find a chart and it lists normal talking at 1 meter as 40-60 dB. A TV (set at home level) at 1 meter as 60 dB. So yeah, 57 dB doesn’t sound very loud, but it also doesn’t say at what distance.
Here is the link [en.wikipedia.org]
This sounds like Boo Hoo I live in the city and I expect it not to smell like shit.
@pyloff: Sounds more like pre-lawsuit whining.
57 dB SPL is not very loud at any distance, unless it’s coming from inside your head.
Pedantic nit: “dB” is actually a ratio; a sound can’t be ’57 dB’, it can only be ’57 dB louder than’ something. However, it’s common to use “dB” instead of the more proper “dB SPL” (sound pressure level), which in turn is often used instead of the even more proper “dB SPL(A)” (or B/C/D) to indicate which weighting was used.
i imagine if theyre prepping duck at 3am, its the assistant chefs cooking it for the next days dinner service. my assumption is they pre cook it, then complete the cooking to order when the place is open.
it saves time for the kitchen when there is a rush but also allows the duck to be fresh for the patron.
or they could be eating dinner themselves when they get off at 3am. or they could be sending the smell through the fan to taunt their neighbors.
or maybe they really hate aflac.
There are very few words that are intrinsically funnier than stench.
Ramsey’s rebuttal: “Fuck off!”
@Jay Levitt:
So this means it’s 57dB louder than the surrounding normal din and traffic of the city? That might actually be loud, then.
Normally I would have been the first to say that this is what you get when you live in Manthattan, but lately with the housing bubble causing a real estate crazy boom and having to live through three straight years of construction on my block as consecutive homes were bought, demolished and giant attached row houses put in their place… I have a newfound sympathy for those who just want a little quiet sometimes. Even in the city.
Anyone will tell you to just pack your sh*t and move.
Perhaps the stench is of Ramsey’s putrifying ego? Just a thought…
@deedrit: Anyone would tell you that you don’t have the faintest familiarity with the NYC housing situation.
Was it the smell of his decaying soul? That man’s a dick. And yes, 57dB is not very loud at all. The fan in my room might be that loud. Ahh, dammit, I just saw Trai_Dep used the same joke. Oh well, I’m leaving it in. Not like mine was funny, anyway.
57dB SPL will definitely keep some people up at night. In Boston, the limit is 50dB (probably weighted), measured inside your house after 11PM (higher during the day). I’m sure the rest of the country has similar noise restrictions.
57 decibels at the source–not so loud
but if the sound from the fan is causing 57 decibels of sound in their homes–yeah, that is loud!
maybe they can put some kind of filter in to control the smell? maybe a muffler for the noise?
Many neighborhoods have restrictions on noise limits. I know that in mine (an urban neighborhood, and far from a “snooty”), a sound cannot be above 50 dB from more than 50 feet away. There are even more stringent noise limits during the night. If the AC unit runs 24/7, it can easily violate any noise ordinances.
@Nero Diavolo: There must be a joke there, but I don’t get it. What’s the story?
I live in chicago. There is a chocolate factory by my house. Some yahoo moved into a condo nearby and raised hell. Now instead of smelling delicious chocolate, everything smells like disgusting burnt chocolate.
Thanks!
Personally, I don’t know what cooking Duck smells like, but I can understand someone complaining about it. In a small town. But NYC?
EVERYTHING smells in New York.
Get over it.
And the decibel thing – I believe they are complaining of the sound being measured at that decibel level in their building. That’s too loud.
If they are complaining the the fan is that loud next to the fan, well then they are whining about nothing….
My Papa always told me, if you want quiet you stay out of the city…
@pyloff: Don’t know where you live, but i’ve never been in a city where a shitty smell is expected. Muggings aren’t the norm either. Been watching too many movies about that crazy city life?
Funny, when I lived down the block from a row of restaurants (italian deli, 4 chinese places, an ethiopian place, an indian place, a Chipotle, a Qdoba, a spanish place, etc etc) not only did it always smell incredible, but you could tell who was cooking what by the scents in the air. I can’t imagine how bad a restaurant must be to stink up the neighborhood. All the ones around us smelled fantastic.
Now, if they were ventilating grease traps, the entire situation would be different, of course.
The stench? Fox executives. It will be gone a the end of the season.
not for nothing, but the last time i was in new york, it was noisy as fuck and the air had an enchanting dusty-piss aroma to it.
@Buran: umm…Hell’s Kitchen…one of Chef Gordon Ramsey’s shows on Fox…it’s rather popular.
I would say that Ramsey doesn’t seem as much of a jerk on his BBC shows as he does on the Fox ones. Actually, on the BBC version of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare, he actually comes off as mostly supportive. Perhaps Fox producers encourage their reality personalities to resemble their news channel personalities.
When I read the headline, my immediate reaction was that he had finally snapped and killed one or more of the contestants.
@KAHRI Seriously… All big cities smell like shit, spend some time in fresh air for a while. Or I’ll mug you!
Every time I see a trailer of his show, its usually him throwing something or shouting at someone… Im not surprised his restaurant smells…
I hated Ramsay because my only impression of him was from hells kitchen. But I love Kitchen Nightmares! The first episode with the indian restaraunt in new york turned my stomach! You can tell he is a skilled organizer, and knows the ins and outs of restaurants.
As for his neighbors, I have no sympathy for rich snooty fucking condo-dwellers. They can suck it.