I couldn't see myself going to Dans Le Noir, unless maybe it was for a good cause. Even then sounds daunting....
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‘Blind’ eating puts food in a whole new lightBy Brendan Lynch | Saturday, December 10, 2011 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining News
Dans Le Noir — a French restaurant chain where diners eat in pitch black darkness — goes intercontinental next week, opening its first U.S. restaurant in New York.
“You eat in complete darkness,” Marco Valente, general manager of the midtown Manhattan restaurant, told the Herald. “We want you to be able to visualize your food with your other senses, your touch, your taste, your smell.”
Before eating, diners sign a waiver releasing the restaurant from responsibility for everything from loss of or damage to their property, to injury and wrongful death.
Customers choose from meat, vegetarian or seafood options — prices for a three-course meal range from $43 to $79.
“It’s a mystery meal,” Valente said. “We don’t want customers to know what it is ahead of time.”
The restaurant is meant to be more of an experience than a meal. The waitstaff, who are blind or visually impaired, act as guides, leading diners through the restaurant itself as well as the meal.
Valente, who is visually impaired, said the restaurant finds blind or visually impaired workers to be more efficient and dedicated to the job.
“If you have the right attitude, anything is possible,” he said. “Myself, I owned my own restaurant at 19, and it hasn’t stopped me from becoming the general manager here.
“You just learn to adapt, and make those slight adjustments for everyday life.”
The New York outpost is the sixth restaurant in the chain, with the others in Paris, London, Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Moscow.
So far, there are no plans for a Boston restaurant, but the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown has used a similar formula for a pair of culinary events — using blindfolds instead of a darkened room.
Kathy Sheehan, executive director of the Perkins Trust, said the school uses an annual fundraiser called Taste of Perkins, and a series of occasional educational events for board members or parents called Dining in the Dark, at Towne Stove and Spirits in Back Bay, to give a brief experience of what it’s like to eat without sight.
“The diners eat the entire meal blindfolded,” Sheehan said.
“People have said conversations are difficult, because they can’t look the other person in the eye,” she said.
“Someone said, ‘I give up, I’m eating with my hands.’ It’s kind of a leveling experience. People become fast friends after an experience like that.”
Article URL:
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainme ... id=1387283
