While wandering the interwebs, I came across Unsicht-Bar: Germany’s first dark restaurant. The idea is simple, the execution not so much. The entire dining experience is done in pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face. The wait staff are all blind or visually impaired so they get along just fine. You, however, probably won’t. It’s an interesting idea and certainly a good way of helping you to “visualize” what it means to be blind, so to speak.
Unsicht = without sight
Bar = um, a bar
The meals are laid out so that you know where things are based on the hands of the clock. The website says that the minimum duration of a meal is about two hours, anything less and you don’t get the full experience. They don’t expect you to go to the restroom in the dark, though, so that’s good. And there’s coupons!
There is one of these in LA, too. It is a restaurant called Opaque. I remember seeing a piece about it with Bill Geist on CBS Sunday Morning. CBS’s website has a write-up of that piece here. The whole concept seems a bit hokey to me. I’m a total foodie, and I think that visuals are a large part of a fine dining and/or drinking experience. As far as providing publicity and empathy for the plight of the blind, I do understand that bit (in fact, the waiters at Opaque are blind – who else could bring food to your table in the dark without ditching it all in your lap?). But I’m afraid I’m not compelled to actually eat at one of these places on those merits alone… But that’s just me, your local, resident food snob I suppose…