It’s not every day you’re asked to sign a waiver and are given a panic button before sitting down to lunch. But then again, nothing about MONA is everyday. I’m at Pharos, the sparkling new wing of David Walsh’s Hobart-reviving, mind-expanding art-filled playground with a glorious expanse of the Derwent River flowing in front of me and a giant ping pong orb next to me. There’s a selection of stylish plates on the table – seared venison with pickled walnuts and blackberries; grill-charred octopus with smoky eggplant; crisp quail with grappa soused currants – elegant and delicious one and all. And comfortingly unchallenging, unlike the prior 30 minutes, which were anything but. This new addition to the museum that has done for modern art what JK Rowling did for kids reading books has been largely built around the works of American light artist James Turrell. That huge, stark white orb is called Seen Unseen, where two people at a time enter and lay back to be – if you choose the “hard”, rather than “soft” setting – assaulted by colour and light. A pulsing, insistent crescendo of pinks and greens and blues and oranges are interspersed with the brightest of white that’s at once aggressive and final. It’s an intense, palpably visceral experience (thus the panic button).  After exiting the pod we’re led to the complementary work, Weight of Darkness, where we’re left for 15 minutes to sit in an armchair in a silent, pitch black room to experience the complete absence of light. It’s a strange, otherworldly, sensation to open your eyes but be completely without sight. Even after just 10 minutes, my other senses seem somewhat heightened; I’m feeling temperature more acutely, hearing the distant restaurant, and, finally, “seeing” shapes in the dark. It’s a meditative and surprisingly moving experience. At Pharos, this art had nothing to do with our (excellent) meal afterwards at the restaurant Faro. But two weeks later, the dark had everything to do with dinner. More than 1.5 million people around the world have so far dined at Dans Le Noir, the original dining in the dark experience. From the first restaurant that opened in Paris in 2004, the concept has grown to include outposts from Madrid to London, Barcelona to Auckland and now Melbourne, where South Yarra’s Hotel Como is its home. It’s not the first time Melbourne has had dinner in the dark; there was a restaurant about a decade back called Black Out that its operators, perhaps cleverly, billed as more “theatrical event” than “restaurant”. Here, the ambitions are greater: there’s the choice of a three- or five-course meal, served with or without matching wines, in the dining room that’s in the complete ink dark. The rest – the linen napkins, hefty cutlery, suitably robust glassware – is as you’d expect to find in a hotel dining room, though here you must call on your mind’s eye to fill in the blanks. It’s a fun exercise in “redesign my brain” training, negotiating your way around a meal without sight; it’s amazing how quickly you adapt to dealing with the all-encompassing darkness. But what elevates Dans Le Noir from mere gimmick into something altogether more profound is that all the waiters are completely blind or have low-vision, with the hotel working with Vision Australia and Blind Sports Victoria to help staff the restaurant. Our waiter, Ari, was wonderful. An Iranian refugee who’s training for the Tokyo Paralympics with the Australian soccer team, he effortlessly guided the temporarily sightless through the logistics of the meal and made the night. There are three types of menu offered: seafood, vegan and the “feed me chef” which was hefty on meat. As the whole point of a meal here is to challenge your palate and preconceptions, this is a spoiler-free review – but I will say it’s fascinating the tricks your mind can play when it’s deprived of a sense; beware the rote association. You can count on conversations around the communal table going something like this: “I think it’s pork.” “No, it’s definitely chicken.” “There’s apple. Do you taste apple?” “Yes, there’s apple. And something sweet.” “What’s that sticky sauce?” “What’s that crunchy thing?” Each of the three courses served this night had elements of surprise to them, though little to truly challenge. Main course, especially, disappointingly came straight from the hotel banquet playbook. Wines are exclusively de Bortoli and come with five-star mark-ups, and at $99 for three courses (plus $30 for the matched wines) the meal is placed firmly at the pointy end of Melbourne’s dining spectrum. But for a unique experience – the room sang happy birthday twice; it’s that type of place – it’s memorable. And on your next trip to Tassie, don’t forget to book tickets to Pharos and see the light. |
