Eating in the Dark
Ann: Hello everyone, this is Ann from watchmojo.com and we are here at restaurant O. Noir, which means in the dark and that’s exactly what it is. You come to this restaurant and you eat completely in the dark, pitch black, you can't see a thing. You’re served by waiters who are waiters and waitresses who are blind. So it's a pretty wild concept. It's actually all over the world in Paris, London, you name it, it’s there and it's all the rage. It takes about two weeks to even get a reservation, to get into the place. So we’re going to go in there and find that little more about it.
Who came up with the concept of the restaurant and how did he come up with it?
Lili Boisvert: Well, the first one it was George Spillman. He was blind himself and he used to blindfold his family and friends and relatives so they can come to his house and he would serve them food and they wouldn’t know what exactly they were eating and so they would experiment eating as if they were blind themselves. And so in 1999, he decided to open a restaurant with the concept that everybody would come to eat and would eat in the dark. And now, you have one in New York, one in Los Angeles and one is opening in Moscow.
Ann: So what should someone expect when they come?
Lili Boisvert: A really good food, first of all. Of course, to be served by blind people because that’s what we’re all about it.
: You never see what you eat or the people beside you and then when the food comes, you don’t know where your fork is, where your knife is. You don’t know where is everything in the plate so you just try to guess it and it becomes a game. You start talking with people besides you. You try to make the environment around more safe.
Ann: Why do you think that it's so huge?
Lili Boisvert: This company has the mission to promote the sightless world. It creates job for blind people who usually have a really hard time in finding jobs. The second reason, it's because it's a very fun place. You really have fun when you come here. You talk to people sitting at the other table. And even if you don’t know them, you’ll start talking to them because you just feel like there is the pressure from the visual judgement is released when you’re completely in the dark.
Ann: If a guy took me here on a first date, I’d be like--good work.
Lili Boisvert: And for blind dates.
Ann: This is the most perfect blind date, perfect place for everything. Although, if you walk with your blind date in there and then you walk out and you think you’ve fallen in love and then you see them—no, I was kidding.
Lili Boisvert: Yeah, but you can meet here first in the bar and have a drink.
Ann: Don’t meet a blind that says to meet you in the dining room. That’s not a good sign.
Lili Boisvert: No, no.
Ann: Thank you very much.
Lili Boisvert: Thank you too.
Ann: and that’s O. Noir.
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