• Dans le Noir?
• Opaque
• Unsicht-Bar

Dining in the Dark

In Los Angeles and in cities across Europe, there's a dining fad that gives a whole new meaning to the term "blind date."

In these locales, restaurants are doing away with atmospheric lighting in favor of, well, no light at all. The idea is that, sans sight, customers will be able to savor their food without distraction and therefore will experience dining in a whole new way.

Paris is home to the no-lights restaurant Dans le Noir?, which just opened a sister eatery in London. There, all illuminated materials are confiscated before the meal, and diners are not allowed to leave their tables without the assistance of a waiter (lest they knock over someone's plate).

At Opaque in Los Angeles, diners peruse the menu in a well-lit lobby with a view of Sunset Boulevard.

"Then you leave this view of the billboards, and the cars rushing by, and you go into this darkened room and become so much more at one with yourself, and what's really important," says Laurel Graban, an Opaque regular. "When I first walked into Opaque, this wonderful peacefulness came over me. It gave me so much energy to hear all the laughter and voices in the room."

Owner Ben Uphues opened the restaurant last July after dining repeatedly at Unsicht-Bar, a dark dining establishment in Berlin. There, the food comes pre-cut so you don't have to worry about wielding a knife in the pitch black.

"We call it 'The journey of tastes,'" he says. "When you eat food in the dark, you don't just taste it, you smell it, and a lot of people eat it with their hands. It involves so many senses."

Sometimes, the absence incites mischief. Patrons have been known to switch plates or steal their companions' silverware as a practical joke. Once, a couple started dancing in the middle of the restaurant, freed by the knowledge that no one could see them.

Then there's the matter of the food, which somehow always seems to taste better in the dark.

"Even the bread and the butter was the best bread and butter I've ever had in my life," Graban says.

 

Posted on April 24, 2006