Superior gears up to dine in the dark

Superior Bathhouse Brewery

In a partnership with The Blind Café Experience, Superior Bathhouse Brewery will present a unique dining in the dark experience in its upstairs dining room Feb. 25 and 26.

Having hosted events in Boulder, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; and Austin, Texas, this will be the first time The Blind Café has come to Arkansas.

Covering all the windows, turning out all the lights and relying on every other sense but sight, attendees will sit at a table with nine other strangers, socializing and eating a four-course meal of finger foods paired with Superior beers, or nonalcoholic beverages. During the event, there will be a Q&A with the Café's legally blind ambassadors. In the background, live music by Rosh The Blind Café Orchestra will be performed.

Superior general manager Katie Windham said she wanted to bring this event to her restaurant after having experienced The Blind Café Experience years ago in Austin.

"It was a really amazing experience," Windham said. "You go in, they play music in the background and then you eat completely in the dark, and you're at a table with people — you don't know who they are — so you would have to engage in conversation, using all your other senses.

"... I remember walking out of it afterward and being in the dark for two hours, and then I went outside and it was just stars, and the sky was super bright. It was just surreal; it was kind of trippy, because you get so used to not seeing.

"It's kind of deprivation, like you cannot see at all, it's pitch black. So I think that feeling of getting use to it and then being able to see again is cool. It's just a new experience, I think it makes you more aware of like people who are visually impaired, and it also kind of makes you forced to use your other senses more."

The food served at Superior's event will be a four course hands-on experience that will have an "Asian flare" with "a bunch of crazy elements," Windham said.

Food allergies and beverage preferences can be disclosed on the ticket order. Tickets cost $65, and can be purchased here.

The event will have a 70-person capacity, and CDC guidelines to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus will be implemented. Vaccinations are encouraged.

The events will not affect the operation of Superior's downstairs restaurant.