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This post is actually overdue. I started writing this post last weekend with the event still fresh in my mind. In my typically unnecessarily lengthy style of writing, I had written a novella chronicling what can easily be described as “dinner in San Francisco”. Halfway through the my magum opus, I accidentally clicked on an icon on my blogging software that should’ve been named “fuck you, blogboy” and deleted all of my progress that night. So here I am, starting over.

As a graphic designer I rely on my eyesight for everything I do. My whole job is predicated on what can I see. Essentially I would be, as the Google French would say, Jusqu’à merde ruisseau sans paddle, should I ever loose my vision. My worst case scenario would be to go blind. Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to do so.

Sammy and I accompanied our new friend Danthy to San Francisco to “dine in the dark” at this new restaurant called Opaque. The basic premise of Opaque and her sister shops in San Diego and Los Angeles, is fine dining in total darkness. Sammy and I first heard about this experience on the evening news and thought it was a crazy idea that we’d like to participate in one day. Coincidentally, the restaurant can’t be seen from the street as they have no visible sign. Look for the address above a door next to Indigo restaurant on McAllister and Gough.

Normally I wouldn’t even write about this on a beer blog but the experience was too interesting for me not to. The owner of Opaque, Ben, is one of the few Germans who don’t like beer. So automatically, he gets knocked down a few points. In addition, for a fine dining restaurant, they have a lousy beer list. If I were the owner of a fine dining establishment, dark or not, I would’ve made sure everything was high quality. There’s just no excuse, especially in San Francisco where there is a robust craft beer scene. The only beer of note is Anchor Steam but the rest are the same seven in every other bar. As a result, I drank wine.

After arriving, the three of us were given menus to which we can choose our meals. I chose to be completely surprised and I let the hostess pick my meal. While waiting for our waitress, a representative from CitySearch.com interviewed us about why we were there. When I last searched, there weren’t any videos up yet but I’m not holding my breath.

The staff of Opaque let us wait just outside the entrance to the dining area. It’s a small space with only a few ottoman style chairs and small, glass coffee tables. The doorway to the dining area is pitch black. You can hear the noises and conversations of the diners within but you couldn’t see anything. That is, afterall, the point. It was then our blind waitress Suna appeared out of the dark to lead us to our table. It all hits home at this point, fine dining from a blind person’s perspective.

Forming a single file line with one hand on each other’s shoulders, we entered the dining area. What I thought was a straight shot was actually a short series of cutbacks necessary to keep out the dim lighting of the waiting area out. Suna’s voice is firm and reassuring, it has to be. The total darkness of the dining area is disorienting and uncomfortable. I can easily understand why Suna is continually asking us if we’re alright.

As with many restaurants, we are given bread and butter to tide us over while the first course is being prepared. Having all of my senses, the little things that I take for granted are instantly magnified a hundred-fold when my sight has been taken away. For example, I grab a piece of bread and butter it with what I believe to be a butter knife. I take a bite of the bread only to realize I have seriously over buttered my bread. The ratio is totally off. It would’ve been more accurate to say I “breaded my butter”.

It got better as the night wore on but the learning curve was steep. My hands effectively became my eyes as I used my hands to map the table dimensions and location of my plate, utensils and beverages. After about an hour, I had learned where everything was and eating was becoming much easier.

Our eyesight accounts for 80% of our sensory stimuli. That’s a huge friggin’ percentage! Up until our food arrived, I was having trouble adjusting to the total darkness, so much so my eyes began to hurt as they strained to find even the smallest shred of light. Maybe it was having something to preoccupy me or a refocusing of my senses but once our food arrived, my eyes stopped hurting. I have cousins who sleep with their eyes open. It’s strange to watch them sleep because even though you know they’re sleeping, they’re watching you back. If you know someone who sleeps with their eyes open, you know how their eyes look and that’s how I felt my eyes had become by the end of dinner. I could feel my eyelids partially open as my body had adjusted to the darkness.

The food was fantastic. Everything tasted wonderful and felt good. I can’t say the food looked good because I obviously couldn’t see it but it sure felt good on the plate. I know this, literally, first hand. I figured that it’s pitch black, no one can see me, so I ate with my hands. While many people consider it unclean, I find eating with my hands gives me an intimate relationship and understanding of my food that utensils will never give me. It’s an acceptable thing do to in my culture. Besides, it’s only unclean if you don’t wash your hands and I made sure to have done so before dinner.

Here’s a quick bulleted list of our meal. It was supposed to be 3 courses but they added in a few things to keep us guessing:

• Mouth Tease - Chunk of smoked salmon, ginger and risotto (I think) served on a tablespoon. It is a tease, afterall.
• Baby Arugula with Ruby Red Grapefruit, Laura Chenel Goat Cheese, Toasted Walnuts and a Champagne Vinaigrette (description taken from the Opaque website). This was a good salad. I tried to be civilized and use my salad fork but after a few dropped pieces of food, I gave up on “fine eating” and used my hands.
• Vegetable plate consisting of brocollini, red bell peppers and celery served with wasabi creme fresh, a curry-based dipping sauce and red pepper aioli.
• Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Puree, Roasted Broccolini Green Peppercorn Sauce, Truffle Butter (from website). I loves me some meat and this was an excellent meat plate. Man o’ man was that steak good. Eating mashed potatoes by hand is a very interesting thing.
• Bittersweet Chocolate Cake, Bing Cherries in Mint Sugar, Vanilla Whipped Cream (last course). This was more like those “lava cakes” where the inside is still piping hot and “raw” cake batter. So rich and gooey. I don’t have a sweet tooth to begin so I didn’t finish but that was some good dessert.

I would like to give props to our waitress Suna. She was one of the most attentive wait staff I have ever had. She was there often enough to make sure we were good but never hovering just over our shoulders (She might’ve been, it’s dark, I can’t tell.). Suna is very personable as well. Turns out, she wasn’t always blind, she lost her eyesight some time back. What really trips me out about her is that she’s also a fashion designer. “Colors,” she says, “You never forget colors”. I look at her and I see what my options are should I loose my own eyesight.

Despite the endless rambling of dining in the dark using your hands, I did manage to have some good beer. When Danthy, Sammy and I first arrived, we chilled out at a bar called Jade which was right around the corner from Opaque. It was a warm day and I ordered the Scrimshaw Pilsner from North Coast Brewing Company. While light, crisp, refreshing and flavorful, I found the beer to be “okay”. It’s a good beer but I felt the flavor profile wasn’t a good example of the style. The malt flavors didn’t taste of pilsner malt and the hop level was below even the low end of what is acceptable for the style. I suppose I’d order another pint of nothing else was around but thankfully, there was.

My next pint was only half a pint as they keg ran out of beer. I tasted Mt. Tam Pale Ale from Marin Brewing Company. This is an awesome beer and I kick myself in the ass for passing on it soo many times at the BevMo. Mt. Tam, please accept my apology and I vow from hereto forth, to never ignore you again. This pale ale has an awesome fruity, floral, citrusy, fresh hop aroma with a flavor to match. There is just enough malt flavor to support the hops but the hops are the starts in this beer. Jahmmy!

After dinner, we headed back to Jade to hang out a little bit more. Sammy had ordered the Pt. Reyes Porter, also from Marin Brewing Company while I drank the Alaskan IPA. I enjoyed the Alaskan IPA. I found the aromas to be very pleasant, a good mix of malt sweetness and hop character with an emphasis on the hops. An excellent precursor to the taste. The IPA had pronounced hop flavors and strong hop bitterness with medium malt characteristics. As good as this beer was, I think I enjoyed the Mt. Tam even more.

Sammy’s Pt. Reyes porter was a great tasting beer as well. Sammy doesn’t really like the dark beers such as porters and stouts. They are not sweet enough for her and the roastiness of some porters and stouts overwhelm her palette sometimes. She liked the Pt. Reyes though. As Sammy put it, “This tastes like chocolate espresso coffee. It’s bittersweet and chocolatey.”

All in all, this was an evening to remember. Dining in the dark at Opaque is an experience I would readily recommend to people who enjoy good food and new experiences. Keep in mind though, it’s a prix fixe menu. I found the $99/person price point a bit steep, especially if it’s just for the food. Because of the combination of food and experience, I found the price worthwhile. I would recommend you wash your hands before dinner and to avoid wearing white if you plan on eating with utensils. There’s a good chance you’ll get food someplace you weren’t expecting. I would hope that Ben would look at Opaque holistically. If he’s going for a fine dining restaurant, everything should be “fine dining”, including your beer list. Jade is also a cool place to hang out with some good beers on tap.

If you do go to Opaque, I’d love to hear about your experiences. I love reading comments.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 11:32 pm and is filed under General, Reviews, Spotlight On. 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.