Dining in the dark at Camaje

November 2, 2:47 PMNY Restaurant ExaminerHoward Portnoy

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 Q: How did you find you steak, sir? A: I peeked.

I've often wondered how wise it would be to dance in the dark, as old the old song title suggests. I imagine a lot of bumps and bruises, maybe a broken lamp—or, worse yet, limb. Dining in the dark, in contrast, sounds comparatively safe, not to mention intriguing. Having participated in blind tastings, I can tell you that your other senses become more acute and receptive when you lack the ability to see what you are ingesting.

The notion of dining in the dark apparently holds some appeal as well for Dana Salisbury, an artistic director who arranges dark dining projects for Camaje (pronounced "kuh-MAHJ"), a French restaurant in the Village. The idea came to Salisbury when she was choreographing a dance based on non-visual perception. "One morning in the studio," she writes, "I peeled an orange with my eyes closed. Pulling back the skin, I was dusted with hundreds of droplets of pungent oil; never had an orange had such an intoxicating aroma. I brought it to my lips; the structure of the orange slice became clear and the cells burst open and juice exploded in my mouth. It was so sweet.

"I was swept with pleasure. The world seemed open and more intimate at the same time. I wanted to share this intensely pleasurable expanded ‘vision’ with others." That vision became reality in 2005, when Camaje hosted its first dark dining event. Dark dining has been a fixture at the restaurant ever since. The video below will give you some sense of the experience.

The next two scheduled dark dining dates are Saturday, November 14 and Tuesday, December 4, both at 8 pm. Dining in the dark doesn't come cheap. The cost in fact is $120 a head. You can also host your own dark dining event. Contact information is available at Dana Salisbury's website.

Camaje, 85 MacDougal Street, (212) 673-8184