Hyatt West Hollywood, Mezzanine 8401 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood (800) 710-1270 www.darkdining.com

 

In a culture that is decimated by sensory overload – the current location on the pulsating Sunset strip couldn’t be more ironic – Opaque invites us to temporarily surrender at least one of those faculties in an attempt to open a kind of sixth, sensual sense through taste, touch and talk.  The trend has already swept through Europe and is now packing in the Angelenos.

 

Upon your arrival in the trendy lobby of the Hyatt, you are presented with a menu featuring the basic four prefix options – Chicken, Fish, Vegetarian or Beef menu.  Each of the three-course meals is impeccably prepared by the chef of the famous, in-house CHI restaurant and range from $99 to $100.  After your order has been taken and you have been politely asked to either check-in or put away any glow-in-the-dark accessories, your server (in our case, the ebullient Margarita) navigates you through a maze of darkness.  Say goodbye to sight for the next hour or two.  The servers, all blind or visually impaired, have been specially trained for this feat and host the dinner with such skill and grace, that one feels highly skeptical of their condition. 

 

We are told (remember, you can’t see a thing!) that the room of about fifteen tables in sold-out and the jovial sounds certainly attest to this.  The conversation is in full swing as if to compensate for the visual loss.  Comments like “Hey, is that your hand?” or “Go ahead, be a slob.  I’m not looking!” fly around in the air with childlike excitement. As if to break you in with a reasonably easy task, the first to arrive on a table covered with rose petals are the warm rolls with butter.  It’s when you lift the fork and knife to engage the delicious baby mixed greens with apples, sweet toasted walnuts and blue cheese dressing that it starts to get interesting.  By the time the scrumptious roasted chicken Shelton breast (thankfully sliced) with truffled mac & cheese and the equally delicious filet mignon wrapped in pancetta come, it may become, at least for some, a tad bit challenging.  My guest was reduced to his caveman instincts and lifted the hunk of meat straight off the plate.  Desserts like the chocolate profiteroles with mixed berries and sauce again live up to the excellence of prior courses.

 

The journey into darkness is unforgettable.  A virtual dance of the senses – and the complete deprivation of one – proves beneficial beyond its adventurous value.  More than the rewarding food, the experience serves as a lasting reminder of the things we have taken for granted and the sharpening of some of these.  However, what could add to the experience is for the meal to be provided in bite-sized servings.  Vision has been banished so why not toss the forks and knives away as well and increase the sensual quotient by eating with the hands and concluding it with finger bowls?  Or perhaps you could request the food to be served in morsels so that simple stabs at the plate will suffice.  But then again, perhaps part of the fun of dining in the dark is to take you back to that place of infancy when you were still only discovering grace and precision. 

 

What else could explain the fun everyone was having?

 

-- GD/EM