6018North’s Black Out Dinners with The Chicago Lighthouse

This post is an excerpt from my article on Sixty Inches From Center, which supports and promotes art and writing that thrives primarily outside of mainstream historical narratives.

Black Out Dinners are not the dining-in-the-dark, date-night novelty you may have seen offered on Groupon. 6018North, an Edgewater nonprofit for experimental arts and culture, takes the experience far beyond a trendy meal. In partnership with The Chicago Lighthouse, Black Out Dinners are presented by fully or partially visually impaired servers who guide guests in the pitch-black setting. The first two courses of the delicious vegetarian meal (Giuseppe Catanzariti of Midnight Kitchen Projects was the chef, with Sonia Yoon, when I attended) are enjoyed at communal tables in the dark, with only minor bumps and air-grasps. Dessert is served back in the light, and includes a discussion with the servers and meeting your fellow table-mates.

As dinner guests, we were placing ourselves in the unknown, trusting someone for whom the dark is not unknown at all. This trust, the ability to lean on one another’s strengths, makes Black Out Dinners about far more than food.

I had the chance to speak with Tricia Van Eck, Artistic Director at 6018North, as well as Elbert Ford, Job Placement Counselor at The Chicago Lighthouse, about Black Out Dinners and their organizations’ partnership.

Courtney Graham: Where did the concept for the Black Out Dinners originate?

Tricia Van Eck: Dinners in the Dark originated in Europe. They are professional restaurants where you make a reservation. You arrive, view and order the menu and drinks in the light. Then you are escorted in by blind servers and eat three courses in the dark. You are escorted out by your server. No conversation but it is a longer experience of eating in the dark. At 6018North, we were closing for rehab. At the same time, I wanted to do a show on blackness. So the Black Out Dinner made sense since we were going dark and contemplating this show. We didn’t end up doing the show, it’s still something I would like to do, but I would want a curatorial partner.

CG: How did the collaboration with 6018North and The Chicago Lighthouse begin? What has that partnership been like?

TVE: The collaboration with The Chicago Lighthouse has been amazing! I called the Lighthouse and connected to Maureen Reid, who is a Job Placement Counselor at The Chicago Lighthouse. Maureen asked her employees if they were interested. They had done a benefit awhile back and they liked the experience. Maureen also suggested that we have a talk-back time. So we decided to have soup and entree in the dark and dessert in the light with the servers. I had wanted to do this but was unsure how to ask for this–just like asking an artist if they want to make their art in the galleries. Tracey Dobson (who is the back-of-house person and the liaison between the servers and chefs) and I met with the servers at the Lighthouse and went over the event, the setup, what they would be asked to do, basic serving techniques, and answered their questions. Everyone was excited. They arrived the first night early to practice and we ran with it. The first night’s servers then explained everything to the other servers. Each night we have at least one Lighthouse liaison. Maureen, Elbert, or Patricia. They represent The Chicago Lighthouse in the conversation but, as you experienced, also talk from a personal advantage.

Elbert Ford: In speaking with Tricia, we developed how we might have the evening play out. For example, it was suggested that when she served dessert downstairs, that might be a good time for us to talk about the experience and educate the guests about how we are quite capable as individuals with a vision impairment. I also felt like it was important to them [6018North] that we be paid well for our services, which I was pleasantly surprised about. Tricia has always been open to feedback and offers support and flexibility.

Read the rest of this piece at Sixty Inches From Center. Special thanks to J. Gibran Villalobos.