A Comfy Chair? A Little Quiet? Your Own Table? Sorry, Ma'am, We're All Out April 18, 2012, 2:48 pm Can restaurant design be discriminatory? I began my review of Alison Eighteen this week with a litany of restaurant trends that have engulfed New York over the past decade: no-reservations policies, uncomfortable and often backless seats, communal tables, and blaring music that forces everybody to shout. I might have added dim lighting. What all these things have in common, it seemed to me, is that they appeal to younger diners. Not coincidentally, they make restaurants less appealing to those older diners whose eyes and ears and joints aren't what they used to be. Which makes you wonder: Do restaurants do these things on purpose to keep older customers away? I've been thinking about this ever since an acquaintance referred to extreme noise in restaurants as "legal age discrimination." (My memory isn't what it used to be, either, so I can't recall who originated this phrase. If it was you, please step forward and claim your prize.) On the face of it, the idea makes little sense as a business proposition. A 65-year-old's money is just as good as a 25-year-old's. In any economy, but especially in this one, it would seem crazy for any restaurant to scare off paying customers. But maybe some restaurateurs will take that risk if the upside is filling the dining room with even more young people. Restaurants, of course, are as much about socializing as eating - much more so in many cases. And most of us tend to hang out with people we resemble in some way. The resemblance could be physical or cultural. In the case of age, it's a little of each. So in theory, if older people stay away from a restaurant because they don't want to sit on a stool with no lumbar support, their absence might make the place even more attractive to younger people who haven't started worrying about lumbar support yet. I have no idea how much any of this factors into the restaurant-design process on a conscious level. But one thing does seem clear: Restaurants that make you wait for the chance to sit on an uncomfortable seat at a shared table where you will have to scream above the music - or eat in silence - are not doing all they could to make customers of a certain age feel welcome.