Dark Restaurants

'It's more of an event rather than a restaurant. It's a theatrical experience.'
- PAUL FARRAH, theatre producer


Dans le Noir?

Dans Le Noir? is co-funded by the Paul Guinot Foundation for Blind people and is staffed completely by the visually impaired. Dans le Noir?? allows you to completely re-evaluate the notion of taste.
 Without sight, other senses are offered a new sensation and emotions.
 Darkness leads to truthfulness about taste, kills preconceptions and let you face the realities of ingredients and cuisine. Our chef elaborates a refined and sensorial cuisine with fresh ingredients to help our senses to enjoy the “truth” taste of food.

Dining in the total darkness represents a very unusual social experience. The absence of vision changes completely the way you act and react, both emotionally and socially. That’s why Dans le Noir? is far more than just a restaurant: it offers a social and convivial experience. Dans le Noir ? raises some questions such as the role of sight in the way we relate to others.

In the dark room, you are guided and served by our blind staff.
 A magic switch between sighted and blind people happens. For once, blind people actually become your eyes.
 This reversal of roles implies a transfer of trust from the sighted person to the blind guide because without him we are just lost. Who actually feels the most Dans le Noir??
 The experience is emotionally strong and this empathy really encourages mutual trust and respect.

There is a surprise menu to give the diners the additional excitement of trying to guess what exactly they are eating. Apparently this is where the Dans le Noir? experience leaves something to be desired. Whether this is due to the diner's inability to see the food or the chef's inability to make something that tastes good, even in the dark, is up for debate.

The first Dans le Noir restautant opened in 2004 in Paris. There are Dans le Noir? restaurants in London and in Moscow, and another company called "Blackout" has just opened an all-blind-waitstaff restaurant in Tel-Aviv, next door to the "Kappish" cafe, whose waitstaff is all-deaf: On the table at Kappish is a sheet with instructions on how to order in sign language.


The restaurant has a special security system and clearly indicated emergency exits.

Speaking recently to Anatolia news agency, Maite Sutto, owner of Dans Le Noir that opened in Barcelona on Dec. 31 last year, said: “This is more than a restaurant. There is a social and humanistic experience. People come here for a new tasting experience but leave here with a humanistic experience.”

Stating that the difficulties of working conditions were easily overcome thanks to the beauty of the project, Maite said they found their staff with the help of the Association for the Blind and that they offered them all their legal benefits.

Although customers chose their menu before entering the dark dining room, he said they did not know what they were being served during the dinner.

References:

http://atlasobscura.com/place/dans-le-noir

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=dans-le-noir-eating-in-pitch-darkness-2010-05-20

http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/unusual-restaurants-eating-in-the-dark

http://www.danslenoir.com/