Megan Shank dot com

A PERISCOPE PIECE FOR THE APRIL EDITION. THIS IS ALSO ONE OF THE BEST HEADLINES I’VE EVER WRITTEN.

It seems counterintuitive that three designers would construct a restaurant with a dining room no one can actually see, but that’s just what Shanghainese Century Xie (谢晶) and Shanghai-based Singaporeans Ken Lua (赖永升) and Bernard Pok (卜英伟) have done with Black Café—China’s second “dark dining” eatery and the only one to date with a completely blind wait staff. Their place and its popularity provide the latest evidence of a burgeoning trend.

The metropolitan Chinese dining scene, spurred by increasing competition, has been no stranger to gimmicks in recent years—from igloo eateries to costume chophouses to code-based cafes. Now dark dining has groped its way into the industry, and as many as a dozen dark dining restaurants are scheduled to be built in major Chinese cities by the end of 2007. In January, Whale Inside opened in Beijing to mixed reviews. Servers wear night-vision goggles and serve meals from a somewhat bland set menu.

The food at Black Café is also working out the kinks, but unlike Whale Inside, night vision goggles would give the servers no advantage. Lua says using blind wait staff protects the integrity of the original concept, which was inspired by a trip he and Xie took to the Parisian café Dans la Noir where the servers are also sight impaired.

“We really thought it was meaningful, and we wanted to take the idea back to Shanghai,” Lua says.

When dinners descend from the pitch-black second-story dining room to the well-lit lounge below, the eyes eat up the visage of pearly opaque tables and pretty pink lights. After sitting in the dark for more than an hour, it looks even more beautiful than it did upon first arrival.

–Megan Shank

黑暗中品味

三位设计师，上海人谢晶和住在上海的新加坡人赖永升及卜英伟, 看似荒诞不经地营造了一家黑暗餐厅，餐厅名“黑”，是中国第二家“黑暗餐厅”，但是现在为止唯一一家完全盲人担当侍者的餐厅。它们的相继出现和引领时尚展示了一种趋向。

中国城市的餐饮业，百花齐放，各出奇招。今年1月北京第一家黑暗餐厅“巨鲸肚”开张。食客先穿过明亮的大厅进入，由戴着夜视镜的侍者带领到漆黑的餐厅入座，在伸手不见五指的环境下点菜、用餐，里面电筒、手机甚至夜光表都禁止使用。黑暗能为生活添色，适合幽会、思索和品味。在黑暗餐厅用餐，视觉休眠，其他感官则倍加敏锐，即使是食品也会前所未有地美味。到2007底，中国的主要大城市将出现十多家这样的漆黑餐厅。

但上海的“黑”较之北京的“巨鲸肚”更具特色：侍者与食客同样什么也看不见，夜视镜也不能给侍者任何优势。赖永升说，他们雇用的侍者全是盲人，以体现黑暗餐厅的完整理念。这是他和谢晶在巴黎的Dans la Noir咖啡厅所受到的启发，在那里侍者也全是盲人。

“我觉得巴黎的方式真有意思，就把它带到了上海，”赖永升说。

食客走出漆黑的二楼餐厅，楼下就是灯光华丽的休息室，一张张光鉴照人的玉石小桌和玲珑剔透的粉红色台灯与楼上的漆黑幽深成鲜明对比。在坐在黑暗中长达一个小时甚至更久后，这比刚进门的时候看上去更加妙不可言。

单梅兰

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 2:30 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.