Portland Blind Cafe 2 (12/3/10)

While we milled around in the lit waiting area of Tabor Space, Paul, Jana, Brett and I could only find one of the five other people who would be joining us at Table 11.  As the host led us, conga-line-style, to the basement dining room we caught a quick glimpse of our other tablemates.  The host then handed our conga line off to Steve, our blind server, who led us through a twisting tunnel that ended in a pitch black room.  Even after our eyes adjusted we couldn't see an inkling of light. 

Super cool!!

Despite having only glanced at our tablemates before dinner, we were now in a ropes-course-like challenge to collaboratively serve ourselves from the containers of unknown contents covering our table.  Lucky for us vegetarians everything on the menu was vegan, peanut free and gluten free.  Despite all that, the food was delicious (though not particularly filling).  From what we could taste, the first course was a stuffed chard leaf, then there was a spinach and asian pear salad with tempeh and polenta with a mushroom sauce.  Dessert was a super rich and delicious dark chocolate mousse.

It was a testament to either our team work or our hunger that when the lights came up at the end of dinner there was only a single spinach leaf clinging to one serving bowl - every other scrap had been consumed.  I couldn't even scrape more from my mousse cup, though I tried.

Blind Cafe 2: If only you could see our sparkling conversation and the inappropriate gestures that my tablemate is making.

I thought it would be challenging to have a conversation in such a crowded place with tables of people nearby, but I hardly heard the other tables and had a great conversation with my immediate neighbors.  One of the interesting things about being in the dark is that I felt like I could disappear when I wanted to - if I didn't feel like contributing to the conversation at the moment it was completely comfortable to be quiet and listen in or itch my armpit or kiss my neighbor (luckily it was my husband). 

The entertainment portion of the evening consisted of spoken word poetry by our waiter, Steve, followed by a compelling speech by another of the blind waitstaff who shared a bit about his experience of becoming blind and a tiny bit of his experiences as a blind person.  Finally we were treated to a guitar and cello concert by the One Eye Glass Open band, led by the head organizer of the dinner. 

After the entertainment and dessert the staff lit candles and we were able to see our environment for the first time.  It was interesting to compare our mental images with actuality.

The experience plus the quality of food was worth the $35 price tag, though we would have like a more generous helping of it - I think everyone at our table was not quite full by the end. 

I give it 9.5 out of 10 quinoa-stuffed chard rolls.  It was a phenomenal experience that I highly, highly recommend should there be a Blind Cafe 3!

http://www.portlandblindcafe.com/PortlandBlindCafe/Portland_Blind_Cafe.html