Escopazzo, OLA at the Sanctuary Hotel, Indomania, Catch 10, and the National Hotel will darken their dining rooms.
The dining-in-the-dark trend lets guests experience food more fully through their other senses. Lights Out Miami Beach is also part of the weeklong Ability Explosion event, which is designed to increase awareness about disability. "The interesting thing is that this has been done at different restaurants around the world, but it's never been done on this scale in one city in one night," says event promoter David New.
Restaurants will serve prix fixe meals; meal styles vary by restaurant. Indomania is leaving everyone in the dark about its menu until that
evening, but rijstaffel would make for some interesting eating in the
dark. Full menus, prices, and seating times are available at Lights Out Miami Beach.
At 660 at the Angler's,
$42.50 buys a welcome drink; fried pickles and okra; a choice of spare
ribs with Dr. Pepper sauce, fried bayou shrimp, or a baby bucket of
Southern-style fried chicken with buttermilk dipping sauce; three
"fixin's"; and warm blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.
At Joe's Stone Crab,
$125 includes food, two glasses of soda/beer/wine, gratuity, and tax.
Stone crabs in their purest form are not on the menu, which is
disappointing, because that would have been an interesting dish to serve
in the dark. I'm not sure whether eating stone crab would be easier
(you eat stone crab with your hands anyway) or more difficult (trying to
get the meat out of the claws, accidentally biting into claws). Joe will serve stone crab baked with artichokes and butter sauce along with a half salmon, a fried half free-range chicken, or Prime top sirloin.
A more adventurous repast can be found at OLA for $76 or $125 with wine pairings. The meal will begin with an
amuse-bouche of raspberry granita with diced tuna and pink peppercorn. Price
includes choice of appetizer (duck confit or corn empanada); entrée (crusted lamb loin with crispy blue potato and goat cheese
soufflé or pan-seared halibut with parsnip purée, black trumpet mushroom
chimi, and radish salad); and postres (semisweet chocolate mousse with toasted hazelnuts and chocolate/caramel sauce or baked Patagonia with berries and lavender salpicon).
Before
the dinner, facilitators from LightHouse for the Blind will train
dining staff on how to comfortably and safely accommodate visually impaired diners.
You can find out seating times and check out menus here.
