December 14, 2008 -- dining in the dark, really dark

In November, we enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime meal at Alinea in Chicago. We were thrilled and every thing was absolutely divine!! Then last night in Merida we had another memorable dining experience -- minus any ambience or good food.
The restaurant called La Vie en Noir recently opened in the Fiesta Americana in Merida, the first in Mexico. It is apparently a franchise from a restaurant that opened in Paris in 2004. The Paris version was not the first of its kind in Europe; a foundation for blind people has been running a comparable restaurant in Zurich since 2000. However, Dans Le Noir (the French version's name) is the first for-profit European company to try the experiment with many mentions of Braille's French origins.
Oh did I forget to mention??? You eat in total darkness. So dark in fact that you cannot see your own hand in front of your nose. You feel around for your silverware and drinks and plates of foods, like an animal, or Hellen Keller did as a child in the movie. When new people enter the restaurant through the four heavy blackout curtains, there is sometimes a moment of light and everyone turns towards it with delight and expectation. We became fixated by two red lights, high above us that were apparently air conditioning units, because they provided the only light in the entire restaurant.
How is food served, you might wonder. All the wait staff is blind, dressed in back, and wearing dark glasses. They kind of creep up on you, moving silently, and then maneuver a plate either to or from you. Nothing spilled.
How do you see to cut your food? You don't need to as even the grilled lamb we ordered was cut for us. Not into bit sized pieces, but in hunks that were manageable to pick up in our fingers and chomp on. The mashed potatoes did present a challenge but the tough part was figuring out whether your fork was facing up or down as you brought a mouthful of potatoes to your mouth or near it anyway.
The food at this restaurant, as is apparently true at it Parisian counterpart, is punk. One would imagine that losing sight, the other senses would be enhanced. Well, our senses of taste said NO, thank you to most of the meal.
How do you get to the bathroom? You ask a waiter to lead you there. You put your hand on this back and follow his baby steps and thankfully, find a lighted rest room.
The purpose of the experiment?? Well, we are not certain, but we can tell you that we had a wonderful time with our friends, Steve and Merle, laughing and enjoying ourselves, if not the food. We did emerge with a new appreciation for sight and light. But we kept imagining how fantastic the experience would have been had the food actually been tasty!!