Sep 26 2007
A UNIQUE NEW EXPERIENCE, eating in total darkness…
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Already the rage in Europe, Australia, L.A and New York and Montreal. A restaurant that invites you to experience food, drink and conversation like never before - TOTALLY IN THE DARK!
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“It’s a sensual dining experience like no other!” says O.NOIR General Manager Moe Alameddine. “When you eat without your sight, your remaining senses are heightened to savour the smell and taste of food. Even simple, everyday dishes like potatoes or plain yoghurt take on a culinary flare.”
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But O.NOIR does more than just fire the imagination and stimulate the senses. After a few hours in complete darkness (that’s right, no flashlights, matches, cell phones, cigarette lighters or luminous watches), customers gain a better understanding of what it’s like to be blind - just like the restaurants’ entire wait staff.
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This socially conscious concept sprang from Jorge Spielmann, a blind pastor in Zurich who used to blindfold his dinner guests at his home so they could share his eating experience. In 1999, Spielmann opened Blindekuh (German for Blind Cow), a project aimed at teaching the sighted about the sightless world, and provide jobs for blind people.
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“It’s not the easiest of undertakings” explains Moe, who has elicited the help of Horizon Travail (an organisation affiliated with Emploi Quebec), which helps prepare and train visually impaired people to enter the mainstream job market; a population that experiences roughly a 70% unemployment rate.
