Patrons at Ottawa restaurant Dark Fork will dine in the sunlight this summer as they “sign for their supper” at the restaurant’s new patio experience.
The restaurant, known for its “dine in the dark” experience where patrons enjoy a meal in complete darkness while being served by visually impaired staff, is opening the first dining experience in Ottawa requiring customers to use American sign language to order and interact with deaf and hard-of-hearing staff, according to a news release Wednesday.
Dark Fork opened its doors at 25 George St. last September.
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Founder Moe Alameddine said he hopes the patio experience, which runs from June 4 through the end of summer, will be just as successful as the indoor concept.
“To be honest, I don’t know yet. It’s my first summer in Ottawa … It’s something exciting because some people are afraid of the dark so they will have more chance to get involved with the disability community,” Alameddine told OBJ on Wednesday.
The experience is open to everyone, regardless of their fluency in sign language, as there are visual guides at each table to show patrons how to sign “please,” “thank you,” “check” and each menu item, according to the release.
“We’ve simplified it to make people get into deaf culture. We call it deaf culture because it’s like a completely new world, like a culture, where they have their own language. We’re building bridges and breaking barriers,” Alameddine said.
The deaf and hard-of-hearing staff have been training for more than a month in preparation for the patio’s grand opening next week. Alameddine said he hopes to support people with disabilities, allowing them to work in an industry that he said is tough to enter.
“They don’t have enough opportunity to work in the hospitality industry, either the blind or the deaf, and we cannot blame this on the government. Business owners should make a little effort. If I can do it, why not anyone else?” he said.
Alameddine, who has operated similar blind dining experiences throughout Canada, said he hopes the idea for a sign language dining experience will represent more of the disability community.
“I said to myself, ‘Why don’t we have something on the patio for deaf people?’ I found it was a good idea. It was challenging, but it was doable,” he said, adding that he did a similar project in Vancouver in 2017. “If there’s a will, there’s a way. You just have to make an effort.”
The project is a collaboration between Alameddine and Tourism HR Canada’s tourism workplace accessibility clinic, a program aimed at supporting accessibility in the Canadian tourism sector.
“So many hands were blended to make a good product … It’s a summer project and hopefully it will be sustainable every year. We just need to build the team first. It will be a lot of fun,” he said.
