Opaque restaurant customers experience dinner in complete darkness. Pitch black. That's all I could "see" for nearly two hours while dining in the darkness of Opaque restaurant. Here, under the guidance of blind, yes, blind or visually-impaired servers, customers undergo the full experience of eating as if they were completely blind themselves.

Prior to entering the black abyss, my party of six selected our choice of entrée from the menu and were then greeted by our server. His name was Michael Headley and, yes, he is blind. With careful instruction, we followed Headley one after the other, hands placed upon the shoulder of the person in front. We walked blindly through a maze of fabric, which twists and turns into the dining room, gradually filtering out the light from the outside world.

Once inside, the room was literally pitch black, so black that it was hard to determine whether my eyes were open or closed. A sense of nervous excitement chilled my spine as I heard the panicky chatter of strangers from across the room. Their faces remained a mystery and I had only their voices to help me determine how many people might have been in the room with me.

Although a relatively new style of eating in Southern California, the dining-in-the-dark phenomenon has been popular in Europe since the late 1990s. In Switzerland, Jorge Spielmann, a blind minister, would blindfold dinner guest in order to have them "see" the world from his viewpoint. Happy with the outcome his guests would have after the experience, Spielmann set out and opened the world's first dining-in-the-dark restaurant. The aptly named Blind Cow eatery gained much notoriety and the idea spread.

My overall experience at Opaque was exciting. And although pricey (roughly $100 a person, excluding tip) it was well-worth the adventure. You could always turn the lights off at home and do this in your kitchen, but you probably won't have as much fun.

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Daily 49er