Opaque: Dining in the Darkfeatured

As featured in SF Weekly, December 22, 2009.

I settled into my seat, threw my leg up on the banquet and got comfy. I felt around for the bread basket and stuck my finger in the butter, once by mistake, the second time because I wanted some butter for my bread. I then made a series of funny faces at my dining partner for good measure.

At any other establishment I would have earned looks of shocked horror and probably a straightjacket fitting. At Opaque, no one looked twice…because there was nothing to see. At Opaque, the dining room is dark beyond imagining.

Originally conceptualized in Germany more than a decade ago, dining in the dark took Europe by storm. Restaurant owner, Benjamin Uphues, brought this unique dining experience to San Francisco in June 2008 and within ten hours of the opening press release, was sold out for three months straight.

As I descended into the Opaque lair, I left all expectations behind. This meal would be all about experiencing in the moment. We were greeted in the dimly lit waiting area where we chose options from the prix fixe menu for the evening. We then met Denise, our legally blind server for the evening (Opaque is the largest employer of the visually impaired in California), and were led choo-choo style into the pitch-black dining room.

Continue reading full article here.

ADDRESSOpaque
689 McAllister St
(between Franklin St & Gough St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(800) 710-1270