Neighbors Complain Of "Unbearable Stench" Coming From Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant
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.A single restaurant is doing all of this? Apparently.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.
"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.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."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. "
New York neighbours say the stench from Gordon Ramsay's restaurant is unbearable [Daily News]
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Comments:
@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]
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.
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.
@deedrit: Anyone would tell you that you don't have the faintest familiarity with the NYC housing situation.
The racket it makes has been measured at 57 decibels, they say - above the limit for local events such as rock concerts."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.















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.