[blindza] "Come dine with me in the dark" - restaurant opening in N Y

I went to the one in London in 2006, and, was quite nicely run, etc.
(see article content below)

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'
---article content---
http://www.iol.co.za/travel/world/north-america/come-dine-with-me-in-the-dark-1.1193329?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Gay+lover+admits+killing+-+07+Dec+2011+-+09%3A34&utm_source=IOL&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iol.co.za%2Fcome-dine-with-me-in-the-dark-1.1193329

Come dine with me in the dark
December 6 2011 at 04:00pm 
By Natalie Huet 

REUTERS

Waiters are taught how to lead customers to their seats during a training 
session at the Dans Le Noir?

A French restaurant where diners cannot see what they are eating, often spill 
their wine and must conduct conversations while staring into pitch darkness has 
proved such a success in Europe that it is making a foray into the Americas. 

After expanding from Paris into London, Moscow, Barcelona and St. Petersburg, 
the Dans Le Noir chain, staffed by blind waiters, will open an outlet in the 
neon-lit tourist hub of New York's Times Square this month. 

What seemed at the outset to be just a bizarre fad has proved surprisingly 
popular, as patrons, many of whom have never before encountered a visually 
impaired person, discover what it's like to be blind and realise how skillfully 
the blind adapt. 

"When I started this business, everyone thought I was crazy, from my bankers to 
my mother,'' Edouard de Broglie, 49, CEO of the chain's owner, Ethik 
Investment, and founder of the restaurant chain, told Reuters. 

"I wanted to show that a company where 50 percent of staff are very heavily 
handicapped can perfectly well be profitable, thrive each year and become 
international like any other one.'' 

Dans Le Noir, French for "In the Dark,'' is not the first restaurant of its 
kind, although it has spread the fastest, having served more than a million 
people at its restaurants and temporary venues in Warsaw, Geneva and Bangkok. 

Pioneer Blindekuh, German for "Blind Cow,'' opened in 1999 in Zurich, starting 
a blind-dining trend that spread to France with de Broglie's eaterie and has 
spawned a series of copycat venues in cities around the world including Berlin, 
Shanghai, Montreal and San Francisco. 

Dans Le Noir uses visually impaired waiters to guide patrons past heavy black 
curtains into a pitch-dark dining room where they are served a surprise two- or 
three-course menu. 

"It's quite brutal. You have no idea what's on your plate, your senses are 
completely confused. You speak louder, it's very surprising,'' said Jerome 
Linyer, 40, after a birthday dinner with friends at the Paris restaurant. 

The first permanent Dans Le Noir restaurant opened in Paris in 2004, followed 
by London in 2006. At the time, the British tabloids were harsh, de Broglie 
recalls. 

"They said it was a gimmick, that the food wasn't good. But, as the British 
say, bad advertising is advertising. Today it's our most profitable restaurant, 
and constantly packed,'' he said. 

He said that Prince William and Kate Middleton had come several times to the 
London restaurant, noting that it may be one of the few "where they can escape 
from paparazzi.'' 

As in London, the restaurant in New York will offer four surprise menus, one 
entirely secret and the others tailored for meat eaters, vegetarians or fish 
and seafood lovers. A three-course dinner with wine starts at $56 (about R450) 
a head. 

Slightly larger than its predecessors, the restaurant can accommodate 72 
guests. It's betting on steady traffic from the neighbouring theatres of Times 
Square and will offer several services a night. It will also feature a Sunday 
gospel brunch. 

De Broglie said the restaurant, which he sees as being a bigger success than 
the Paris one, was fully booked for its first three weeks. 

Dans le Noir is now eyeing South America and Asia, de Broglie said, mentioning 
Brazil, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul as possible target 
cities. De Broglie quipped that he may already be the world's biggest employer 
of blind people. 

Ethik Investment, which also runs in-the-dark spas, donates 10 percent of its 
profits to charity, mainly to groups focused on helping disabled people 
integrate into society. It also runs corporate events to raise awareness about 
physical handicaps and advises companies on hiring disabled people. 

"We tell people: Stop hiring handicapped people to fill quotas, but try instead 
to see how they can be productive within your business,'' de Broglie said. 

Mohand Touat, 46, found his first job at Dans le Noir's Paris restaurant four 
years ago. He heads to work cautiously, holding a white cane, but once inside 
he flits from table to table as diners shout for him to come and help them, "I 
dropped my fork'' being a frequent cry. 

"In the dark, we're the ones serving as guides, so we're sort of switching 
roles,'' Touat said. "I feel good here.'' - Reuters

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