FRANCE

CONTINENTAL DRIFTER
Dining in the dark
by Elliott Hester

On an unassuming street in the 4th arrondissement, a stone’s throw from the Georges Pompidou Center, there’s a restaurant no guest has ever seen. During lunch, dinner, the crowded dining room is as dark as a coal mine. Diners can’t see their waiters, meals, or each other. The restaurant is so dark, in fact, you may as well eat with your eyes shut.

Welcome to Dans le Noir.

Since opening in Paris in 2004, Dans le Noir (In the Dark) has served more than 100,000 customers in absolute darkness. Meals are prepared by sighted cooks in a lighted kitchen. Drinks are concocted by a sighted bartender in a lighted bar. But the waiters work in darkness. All of them are legally blind.

At the lighted entrance to the dining room, a hostess introduced me to Véronique, a sightless French waitress. Véronique took Gilles, my dining buddy, by the hand. As instructed, I placed my hand on his shoulder. We stumbled into the darkness, the blind leading the temporarily blinded.

Having memorized the location of every chair, every table and passageway in the 58-seat restaurant, Véronique, had become our eyes.

Dark dining is the brainchild of blind clergyman Jürg Spielmann and visually-impaired psychologist Stephan Zappa. The culinary visionaries met at a “Dialogue in the Dark” exhibition at the Museum of Design in Zurich, Switzerland. Together with blind social worker Andrea Blaser and blind singer Thomas Moser, they opened Blindekuh (Blind Man’s Bluff) in September, 1999.

The Zurich restaurant employed the world’s first visually-impaired wait staff and gave sighted diners a glimpse of life in a sightless word. Blindekuh also awakened the senses.

Deprived of sight, our remaining senses are heightened. Aromas become more potent. The sense of taste is more acute. Food textures are scrutinized. Immersed in total darkness, even the sound of chewing can be provocative.

The success of world’s first dark dining restaurant led to the 2002 opening of a second Blindekuh in Basel, Switzerland. The concept has since been copied and is spreading worldwide.

At Unsicht-Bar (Invisible Bar), a trendy German eatery with locations in Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin, blind and visually impaired waiters serve tasty 4-course meals. The Berlin location faces stiff competition from cross-town rival Nocti Vagus, where in-the-dark musical performances (Darktheater) and tofu nut steak are all the rage.

At O. Noir, a dark-dining restaurant in Montreal, a percentage of the profits go to organizations serving the visually impaired. In addition to Paris, Dans le Noir has restaurants in London and Moscow.

In January, 2007, Whale Inside, opened its first dark dining restaurant in Beijing. Franchises have since popped up in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian and Hangzhou in mainland China. By late 2009, the company plans to have opened 15 additional restaurants in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and other Asian cities.

Whale Inside does not employ blind waiters. Instead, diners are served in total darkness by waiters wearing military-grade night-vision goggles.

At Dans le Noir in Paris, trance music oozed from unseen speakers in the cave-dark dining room. I heard giggles in the distance. Someone touched my arm. “Monsieur, Monsieur?” It was Véronique. She led me and Gilles to a table and guided us to our seats.

To maintain absolute obscurity, cell phones, cigarette lighters, luminous wristwatches—anything capable of emitting light—had been confiscated by the staff and stored in lockers outside the dining room. Guests are forbidden to move without the assistance of a waiter (you couldn’t walk alone if you wanted to).

Pouring wine proved to be a difficult task. Following Véronique's instructions, I found my glass and held it so that the tip of my index finger dangled inside. Groping in the darkness, I latched onto the carafe of wine and poured until my finger felt wet.

I’d pre-ordered the “surprise” and therefore had no idea what to expect when Véronique placed my first course on the table. I found my fork and probed the plate with it. Unable to discern the contents, I used my fingers (hey, nobody could see). I felt a cluster of spongy, cube-like morsels and plopped one in my mouth. The warm, fleshy fare melted in my mouth. It tasted like—and turned out to be— grilled scallops.

The main course of roasted veal medallions, stuffed ravioli and steamed vegetables might have been forgettable had I been able to see the food. However, eating in the dark turned an average meal into a sensual experience.

Next stop: Barbados, West Indies

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