Restaurants that offer “blind dining” have been around for some time now. In 1999 Blindekuh, which means “blind cow”, opened in Zurich. There are now restaurants that offer the experience of dining in the dark in cities including Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Toronto, as well as Montreal’s O.Noir that opened seven years ago. It seems certain that this style of dining has staying power in spite of critics’ reduction of “blind dining” to a fad.
My experience with dining in the dark was at Montreal’s O.Noir in June of 2014. I may have never had the experience had it not been for a class I took at Concordia University, Playing with the Senses, with visiting artist Heather Kelley. Approaching O.Noir from a sensory perspective certainly shaped my experience – I didn’t go there for the food. It wasn’t until after eating at O.Noir that I came to understand how many who work in fine dining turn their noses up to restaurants that operate in the dark. I spoke with Yann Geoffroy, who works as a server at Montreal’s Joe Beef. In spite of the fact that Yann has never had the experience of dining in the dark, he discussed how, within the industry, the predominant critique of “blind dining” is that seeing your food is integral to the experience of fine dining.
When we arrived at O.Noir as a group of eleven, we gathered in a dimly lit front lobby area where we chose a starter, main course, and dessert. Within each course, there is the option to order a ‘surprise’; however, I ordered the ‘wild mushroom salad’ and ‘grilled fillet mignon’ and no desert. Once all of our orders were placed, our server led us to our seats. Being a large group, we established where we were all seated and then fell into conversations amongst ourselves. This initial experience was for me mostly about figuring out what was around me. How close were my neighbors, what was on the table, where was my water, and so on and so forth. What struck me the most was how quickly I forgot that we were all in the dark. It didn’t take much time for the experience to feel natural and for my remaining senses to become heightened.
As the food arrived so did the challenge of negotiating a plate of food in the dark as well as figuring what to do with the cutlery. I resorted to a technique that involved one hand and one fork as I felt on my plate for something to stab. There is no doubt that there was nothing ‘fine’ about the dining experience. Place settings were there only for the sake of convention as eating was transformed into a visceral experience. This for me was a key part of eating at O.Noir; the food was somehow more delicious because I didn’t have to think about what it looked like or how I looked as I ate it. Dining in the dark didn’t add to how I experienced food, it concentrated it. It also enabled social dining to shed its markers of cultural and class insofar as fine dining is traditionally about how food is both presented and eaten.
O.Noir’s website provides some background on the concept of dining in the dark. In spite of my positive experience dining there, I have some issues with how they market the restaurant. It was certainly an experience like no other, and I was amazed by how quickly my remaining senses compensated for my lack of vision. However, I’m not sure that this is entirely the experience of being visually impaired as O.Noir claims. The visually impaired and blind are aware of the fact that they are being observed. They may have compromised sight, but they are still self-conscious. Dining in the dark is different insofar as you cannot see but you also know that nobody else can see you. In addition to your senses being heightened, you are liberated from a self-conscious awareness of your visual appearance.
After eating, our group was fortunate enough to speak with Alejandro Martinez, one of the restaurant’s managers. He answered our questions including clarifying that O.Noir’s servers are not all blind but do have some degree of visual impairment. Martinez also expanded on O.Noir’s connection to the blind and visually impaired. Zurich’s original Blindekuh was opened by Jorge Spielmann, a blind pastor who opened the restaurant to teach the “sighted about the sightless world, and provide jobs for blind people.” O.Noir stays true to Spielmann’s concept; however, perhaps some of the critique of O.Noir is brought on by the fact that restaurants that have opened since Blindekuh are somewhat removed from Spielmann’s context. In addition, O.Noir brands itself as a fine dining restaurant but fine dining is a visual experience. O.Noir is something different.
Aside from any issues with O.Noir’s marketing, the food is incredible and dining in the dark is tremendously entertaining. I’d recommend the restaurant without any reservation. I would, however, promote it as being a sensory and social rather than fine dining experience.
David Clark, July 7th, 2014