A couple of years ago, I heard about a dark restaurant in Paris, where diners have their meals in complete darkness. Though my immediate reaction wasn't "Wow, I can't wait to try that," I did think it was a fascinating concept, espcially given that so many foodies I know say that they eat with their eyes as much as with their mouths. The first dark restaurant opened in Zurich in 1999, followed by openings in other large cities around the world, including in the U.S. The first dark restaurant in Asia opened last month in Beijing, with diners being escorted through blackness without even the light of their cell phones (egads! -- no cell phones?), by waiters making their way in the dark with night vision goggles. The idea, of course, is that with your vision shut down, you experience greater heights of pleasure with your other senses. My mother would not get this at all.

Via Spluch.