Eat in the Dark

Gwendolyn is my hip friend who always knows abt the new, interesting restaurants, or that great exhibit, or something else fun going on. For her birthday, we went to Dans le Noir. It was an incredible experience.

You pay a flat fee for your meals. You get there, order cocktails, and pick out one of four menu choices: meat, vegetarian, seafood, or surprise. You tell them any dietary restrictions.

Then, your server, who is blind, leads you into a completely dark dining room. Everyone has a hand on each other's back, and she helps you into your seat. Pitch black. You can't see your hand in front of your face. It's pretty freaky. Our server was super duper nice, raised in Georgia. We were having her experience for a little while.

She passed us water pitchers. Pouring water in the dark was hard. Then we were served rolls. It was interesting to identify what we were eating. Gwendolyn and I had different rolls, and when I was saying, "Salty and savory. Olives," she was saying, "Cinnamon and raisins and nuts." We shared rolls, which was hard, since I couldn't tell where her reached hand was.

Then we got salad. We were giggling as we tried to eat. "What's this slimy thing?" "A tomato." I think there was fresh mozzarella, tomato, some greens, fig and goat cheese and something else. All really good. I ate with my fork and hands.

We all felt the darkness. It intoxicated us. I had half a cocktail when I entered and immediately felt drunk. Wow. Everyone was giggling, talking, freaked out. It was really scary. I asked to be seated next to Wayne b/c I wanted to at least be able to touch him - no eye contact or physical contact would've been freaky. But it was great. It was actually fun - we made out sporadically during the meal when we never would have ordinarily b/c no one noticed. We were all having our own intense amazing experiences.

Then the meal. I think there was some kind of quinoa with chevril and this amazing eggplant Parmesan. I don't know what anyone else had - this was the veg option. I dropped sauce on myself. I ordered another drink and spilled some of it down my shirt. Drinking and eating in the dark was hard. 

I kissed Wayne some more.

I laughed with Gwendolyn. We told stories. The dynamics were different. It was fun.

Then, dessert. Tiaramasu, panna cotta, a cinnamon puff with cream. Amazing

We felt drunk with darkness.

After, they showed us photos of what we had eaten, telling us in great detail.

It was an amazing experience. Yes, a little pricey, but you're paying for the experience. And it was fascinating.