Why I ate dinner in total darkness
November 16th 2008 17:10
The restaurant's name is a play on words. 'Unsichtbar' means 'invisible' in German, but the syllable 'bar' is emphasised to indicate the fact that it's an eatery.
For my birthday, my boyfriend took me on a surprise dinner date to Unsicht-Bar -- the relatively famous restaurant where you eat in complete darkness. Yes, complete darkness. What makes it even cooler is that all the waiters who work there are blind, so it's a fantastic employment opportunity for blind people, as well as an environment where they are superior to normal people.
Your waiter leads you in by the hand, shows you to your table, and then the fun begins. You enjoy your pre-chosen four-course menu, trying to guess what you are eating (the descriptions are cryptic and vague on purpose), while secretly using your fingers as an auxiliary utensil, knowing that other people are probably doing the same thing, though no-one wants to admit to it. You have to lean forward a bit more than normal and poke around on your plate to confirm that you've eaten everything, but overall it's much easier than you probably imagined. In fact, soup was really easy to eat in complete darkness, which rather surprised me.
Your senses of taste and hearing become more acute. You find it easier to make conversation with the people sitting next to you, especially since you don't get the chance to judge them on their appearance. And, after a while, you can even perhaps forget that you can't see anything, which at least was the case with me. My imagination automatically replaced the lack of vision of everything around me, so I was still "seeing" everything in my mind. And, amazingly, after 40 minutes I almost forgot that I couldn't see.
It was a great experience overall -- and amusing at the end, when I found out that the people who had been sitting next to me actually looked nothing like I imagined them too look. They were far less attractive than I had expected.
It's amazing how we can judge people on their voices.
*****
Note to those who have a craving for some food in the dark: there are three of these restaurants in Germany -- one in Berlin, one in Cologne, and one in Hamburg.
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Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Eva W.
Life in Germany
Experiencing it for yourself is even more fascinating.
Comment by jimmy
cyberperson