Islington may boast hundreds of restaurants but one Clerkenwell eatery really can claim to offer its customers something different – the opportunity to dine, and date, in total darkness.
Dans Le Noir?, which translates as “in the dark?”, is based on a Parisian dining concept developed by Edouard de Broglie, a blind man who aimed to challenge perceptions toward disability. When running a sensory exhibition at the Louvre where participants were blindfolded, he noticed how quickly people became fixated on taste when deprived of their sight.
The London restaurant is the result of this understanding. It is so popular that it is necessary to book months in advance. Diners are able to pick which food grouping they would like to eat from – such as meat or fish – but are otherwise left in the dark.
General manager Dominique Raclin explained the ethos behind the restaurant: to provide a personal experience which opens up the mind and forces people to leave their prejudices at the door.
“When you eat here you are using other senses which you are not used to relying on, because around 80 per cent of the information that passes through our brain is from our eyes.
In the dark everybody is the same. This destroys the prejudging in society. It doesn’t matter if you are white, black, pink, green, rich or poor, you cannot see who you are eating with so you cannot judge on appearance.”
Online dating website Match.com recently listed the restaurant as one of the best places to take a date.
The purity of the environment makes it ideal for finding true love, claims Mr Raclin, because “touching and smelling are better than looking”.
The same goes for the food. One customer, Jane Digby, reported eating spinach for the first time in years, and because she didn’t know what she didn’t know what it was, she enjoyed it.
To ensure people do not get distracted and lose the intensity of the experience, every customer is asked to place any light transmitting object, such as phones and luminous watches, in lockers at the entrance area. Visitors “can truly disconnect and enjoy themselves this way and many lose track of time,” added Mr Raclin.
People are kept safe by guides who Mr Raclin calls the “diplomats of the dark” because “they wake up and go to sleep in the dark – they are blind”.
In the spirit of its founder, over half of Dans Le Noir’s employees are disabled and 10 per cent of all profit goes to charity. Mr Raclin believes this shows that companies can offer a third way: “being ethical and helping people whilst remaining profitable”.
Roger, one of the guides, said: “Working here shows people that even if I experience the world differently as a blind man, I am not different to anybody else.”
The Clerkenwell restaurant is now part of a global brand, spanning five cities across the world, from St Petersburg to New York.
When asked why he became the manager of Dans Le Noir, Mr Raclin said he wanted to show people that “there are still those out there trying to offer something new and change perceptions, and the restaurant does that”.
