We've all heard of the expression, "Flying Blind," well have you tried "Eating Blind?" There is a restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland where you do just that and it is so popular that you need to make reservations months out and their success has inspired similar restaurants to open in other major cities around the world.
Blindekuh Restaurant (Blind Cow in English) is in a renovated church building at Muhlebackstrasse 148, 8008, Zurich (01.421.50 50 24) and is definitely an experience to which you need to expose yourself .
I have done business in Zurich for over 30 years and had read or heard about the restaurant several times but never had the opportunity to go or they did not have openings. One morning during our meetings the PR man announced that we were going to lunch at a special place and that we absolutely had to be there on time so be in the car at 11:30.
Driving around Lake Zurich to the East side we wound our way through side streets until we came to a church with the name "Blindekuh" proudly stationed over the front door. My wife speaks German so she knew immediately what Blindekuh meant, whereas, I stood waiting for someone to take me to lunch. Before we went in my group explained to me the meaning of the word Blindekuh and where we were going for lunch in a blind restaurant . Wow, what a surprise.
When we entered the foyer we were greeted by a man behind a counter who explained how our lunch would proceed. First we should study the large menu board on the wall and select our main course, wine and if we wanted tea or coffee. The rest of the meal is set, including soup, salad, bread and desert. Then we were told to remove all jewelry, men's ties, jackets, cell phones, empty our pockets and leave all purses, which are locked in separate lockers. We were then set to restrooms to carefully wash our hands.
Soon a blind lady came out to the foyer and introduced herself to us and announced that she would be the head waiter for our table of seven. She pointed out that she was wearing a bracelet around her ankle with a small bell attached so that when she walked you could hear the bell and to remember that when you did not hear the bell that she had stopped and we must stop also. Then she explained that the first person would put their hands on her shoulders and follow her into the eating area, with each person in our group following suit until we had a Congo line of our party of seven. Once we had ourselves properly linked she then led us through very heavy black curtains into an ante room with very dim light to let our eyes adjust to the coming darkness. After a few moments she proceeded through another set of very heavy black curtains and into "total black."
It was amazing, as when we entered the eating area, all around you could hear people talking, clinking glasses and eating, yet we could not see anything, total dark. The restaurant seats 70 or more people and the seating's were sold out for this luncheon period so we were in a large room with a lot of people.
Slowly we wound our Congo line of seven around tables and past invisible people and then the tinkling bell stopped and we came to a stop at what was to be our table. Another tinkling bell approached and she and our leader explained that they would be taking each person by the hand and leading us to our seat at the table, helping us sit and then showing us how to identify our table setting pieces. Reminding us not to move quickly and to slowly explore each square inch of our place setting.
The server would touch my shoulder, run her hand down my arm to my hand and then move me in the right direction to either the chair, or to the napkin, the silverware and particularly to where my water and wine glasses were placed.
Once seated everyone was cheerful and talking over each other about who was sitting where, had we spilled our water yet and how do we eat our upcoming soup. Laughter broke out when someone asked who was going to swirl their red wine in the glass and watch for it's legs on the sides of the glass.
About that time I began to get a growing feeling of terror, claustrophobia and the urge to leap up and run - anywhere. I had never experienced serious claustrophobia before and it was a feeling I did not like, especially the urge to leap up and run. What a scene that would have been, me crashing through the midst of some 70 people frantically searching for a door opening in a black wall. I touched my wife and told her that I may have to get out of here and would she help me but the deep voice of our PR man came from across the table and said, "here I am handing you a glass of water, take some sips. I grouped out and found Han's hand and glass and began sipping, not working !! Again, I leaned to my wife and said, "I need to get out of here." She leaned back to me and asked, "are our eyes open?" "Yes." "Close your eyes and just sit for a few moments. Take some deep breaths but do not open your eyes." I did what she said and almost immediately I started calming down. Within a minute I was fine. I was sitting in total darkness with my eyes closed and I was OK. My wife said, "think about what you were doing when the fear started, you had your eyes open and you were naturally searching for light, from somewhere or anywhere and you couldn't find any so you mind started to panic." Yes, that was true and I now knew that I had been opening my eyes wider and wider looking for the door to the kitchen, the entrance or anything that showed a glimmer of light, which wasn't there.
So, I sat like a silly school kid fooling around in class with my eyes closed and calmly reached out onto the table for my wine glass. A nice Cab with a leathery aroma and finish.
The luncheon went amazingly smooth, tinkling bells would be heard and a hand would touch my shoulder with an announcement that she was setting the soup down at my left hand. When I had found my soup and my soup spoon I began using my soup spoon to politely scoop up mouthfuls. However, I repeatedly found that I had no soup in the spoon when it got to my mouth so finally I picked up the bowl and drank my soup. The salad was a typical Swiss vegetable salad and by using my left hand as a fence around the outside of my salad plate and with the fork in my right hand I actually got all of the salad into my mouth.
The main course was another typical Swiss dish, Veal with Noodles and very tasty. I cut my
Veal with my knife, found it with my fork and enjoyed every bite. The noodles were more of a challenge, I could spear a few but when I would try to get some on my fork I always had an empty fork when it reached my mouth. After many tries and hearing word that desert was coming to the table I went to drastic measures. I put down my knife an fork and demurely used my hands to locate and corral all of the noodles on the plate, then (I really did) I looked over both my left and right shoulders to see if anyone was watching, then leaned forward and scooped up the noodles with my hands and fingers until I had the plate clean. I even glanced at my wife to see if she had seen what I had done and might admonish me for bad manners.
Desert was wonderful, as well as the coffee (with cream) and people began talking about odd things, like their unusual dream last night, when they got lost in the dark when they were a child or what it would be like to be deaf. I guess the experience of blindness was hitting home with the people and they were trying to relate more definitively with the situation.
When we had finished the delightful lunch the tinkling bells returned and began leading us up from our chairs and into a Congo line for the return to daylight and "our world."
We paused in the ante room again to readjust our eyes and I watched as our blind leaders moved about with such ease in a setting that they completely knew and understood. I also had a much clearer understanding of what these beautiful people have to deal with when they move about in our world of sight.
As we gathered out belonging from the lockers someone said, "Look at what time it is." We had been in the restaurant for over 3 hours.
Whether you are in Zurich or any other city around the world where there are newly opened blind restaurants, please make a reservation and experience something that we wish we never have to live with but also to learn a real lesson on how people cope with never seeing the light of day. Never seeing a sunrise or a sunset and all of the other beauties of the world. Please support them, they are great people.
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