Is silent dining the latest restaurant trend?
According to the Wall Street Journal, a restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn held it's first-ever silent dinner over the weekend. The restaurant, called "Eat," served a capacity crowd of 17 people with a $40, four-course dinner of organic locavore fare in 90 minutes of total silence.
As patrons made their way into the eatery, they whispered and held quiet conversations in the venue's antechamber, which is separated from the dining area, ironically for the night, by an upright piano.
Nicholas Nauman, Eat's managing chef and events planner, said he was inspired to hosts the meals by silent breakfasts he enjoyed at a monastery in the Indian Buddhist pilgrimage city of Bodh Gaya.
"We wanted to bring attention to the physical and visceral properties of eating, and less of the distractions you see so much these days," the 28-year old said.
Upon arrival, the Journal reported, patrons were asked to "speak now or forever hold your peace." The event began at 8:04 p.m.
Punishment for talking was having one's plate-filled with handmade whole wheat pasta or scallops and calamari, among other dishes-removed and placed on a bench outside, where loudmouths could finish their meals.
Here's a countdown of events, courtesy of the Journal:
At 8:12 p.m., the first muffled sneeze and at 8:20, the first throat cleared.
Maria Usbeck, a 28-year-old freelance art director from Williamsburg, tried to make her companion laugh by turning her napkin into a paper airplane and sailing it from one knee to the other.
Others closed their eyes, few for meditation and others for napping; one patron reportedly texted the entire night.
At 9:17 p.m., the time the entrees were being finished.
At 9:34 p.m., the crowd erupted in spontaneous applause, followed by lots of making up for lost chit-chat.
Nauman said he wants to do the event at least once a month.
