Opaque – Dining in the Dark for Valentine’s Day

Jan 28, 2010

Opaque – Dining in the Dark for Valentine’s Day

Categories: Day Tripping, Diva-Colored Glasses, Diva-liscious, Do As The Locals Do, Featured, Miscellaneous, Night Life Diva, Not-so-Vanilla Diva, Where Few Divas Dare To Tread

Contributing Diva:

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By Yeni Alvarez

Last Valentine’s Day, I had a tour de force culinary experience. It started with an invitation to a popular restaurant I had heard of, but was afraid to try. I’m speaking of Dining in the Dark at OPAQUE.

Opaque’s mission is to engage all the senses in a pitch-black dining room, while eager guests are taken from one course to the next, softly guided by their respective blind or visually impaired servers.

Let me start from the beginning. We first walked in to the lounge area and were greeted by friendly staff, who reacted as if they knew something we didn’t when we announced it was our first time. They knew we were in for a treat.

We picked our meal in the dimly lit romantic lounge and waited for our server to guide us to our table. Behind closed curtains we entered. Hands on my guide’s shoulder we went, slowly making our way between pockets of fading conversations in a sea of darkness.

The maze ended up in a comfortable corner near the entrance to the kitchen. At this point, our ears were still getting adjusted to the mumbling, as we picked up on various voices at the same time, being aware that there might be someone sitting quietly, right next to us, listening. We sat down as our server explained where exactly we would find our utensils, plate and glasses. Lo and behold! They were exactly where she explained they’d be!

My brain wandered: “Will I be startled as a voice jumps from the darkness to fill my glass or ask me how dinner is going?” “When is this going to get old?” To my surprise, I was very aware of my server approaching the table and the sweet manner in which she guided us from appetizer to entrée to desert. Each course seemed a discovery all on its own. Who knew carrots could taste so sweet? I had no idea what my food looked like, yet I savored every juicy bite, every texture, every discovery. Even my breath had lingering flavor.

By the time the main course came around, I had given up on the task of accurately putting the fork in my mouth and was using my hands to eat. This, by the way, was my favorite part of the meal. The food was easy to identify, satisfactory to pick up with my own fingers, and delectable to all my tens of thousands of taste buds.

The Mango Panna Cotta was nothing short of an orgasm. Not being able to use my sight for the past hour, my other senses danced around me in circles. This delicious desert exploded with flavor in my mouth, while, in my head, and I held back from ‘Mmm-mmm-ing’ out loud, afraid of repeating the infamous “When Harry Met Sally” scene.

Needless to say, Valentine’s dinner was as unforgettable and as a sure shot to a romantic ending as the greatest chocolate cake in the world… or the biggest diamond.

Opaque is the ultimate voyage of the senses, all neatly engaged in a prix fixe 3-course gourmet meal, a experience not only of taste but of smell and sound. This experimental journey of the senses gets the Diva’s Wink ™ of approval.