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The ambience inside The Blind Café is dark, really dark.

Guests at the pop-up restaurant ­— which came to Salt Lake City last week — could hold their hands directly in front of their noses and still not see palms and fingers. That means concentration is needed just to pass the basket of rolls or get a bite of salad.

A blend of dining, music and social awareness, the Blind Café experience "helps people connect in a more meaningful way," says executive director Brian Rocheleau, who goes by Rosh. Sitting in a pitch-black room with strangers eliminates all the social barriers that hold us back from connecting with others. Skin color, weight, age, even disabilities are taken out of the equation.

What the Blind Café does not try to do, he insists, "is simulate what it's like to be blind."

But it gives participants a chance to meet members of the blind community and ask them questions.

Salt Lake experience • "Are you excited to be in the dark?" Rosh asks a group of about 30 gathered in a lighted space at the new Sugar Space arts complex. He asks the diners to turn off cellphones — no cheating with airplane or silent mode — and remove watches, as they can often emit a light.

He then divides the crowd into groups of six. Members of each group hold onto each other's shoulders — just like schoolchildren — so Rick Hammond, their blind server and guide, can lead them outside, down a hallway, around a corner and into the darkened dining room.

"The first 10 or 20 minutes people are nervous because it's a new experience," says Hammond. "It offers all these tests that a regular restaurant can't provide."

Hammond helps each guest find a chair at the table and tells them to enjoy the vegan and (almost) gluten-free meal before them. "People are often afraid because they don't know what's on their plate," he said. "But it's a great exercise in trust."

Indeed, smell and taste are the only way to determine what's for dinner. As guests sample, they are quick to describe what they're tasting. "Something is spicy," says one diner. "It has beans," says another. "Has anybody gotten to the bowl with cranberries?"

Guests later learned they had enjoyed basmati rice and black beans, topped with pico de gallo; a bowl of gazpacho; and cranberry quinoa salad with maple glaze.

After Hammond has served dessert — a chocolate tofu mousse — diners have the opportunity to ask questions.

"Were you born blind?" asks one diner. "Yes," Hammond answers, "I have an underdeveloped optic nerve."

"What do seeing people do that really annoys you?" asks another diner. "Assuming I need help," he says.

The evening ends with Rosh, who is not blind, performing several songs on guitar.

As a musician, Rosh said his initial goal was to create a concert in the dark where people wouldn't be distracted — a nod to the days before cellphones and social media, when the now-37-year-old would lie on his bed in complete darkness and listen to a new album. "Darkness inhibits our natural ways of checking out," he says. "People really start listening to the music and the message."

European beginnings • The first completely dark restaurant with blind servers — called blindekuh or "Blind Man's Bluff" — was launched in 1999 in Zürich, Switzerland. Similar eateries followed in other European cities.

After visiting one of those cafés, Rosh decided to launch The Blind Café in Boulder, Colo. Since starting in 2010, the pop-up events have been held in several U.S. cities including Portland, Ore., Seattle, Napa, Calif., and Austin, Texas. About 14,000 guests have been served so far, he says.

During its first stop in Salt Lake City, more than 150 people attended six shows — two each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Cost was $85, although discount tickets were offered through Groupon.

Rosh said The Blind Café concept is different than some high-end dining experiences where diners are simply blindfolded or where servers wear night-vision goggles in a darkened restaurant. (Filmmakers poked fun at that experience in the 2010 comedy "When in Rome" when the main characters, played by Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel, go on a disastrous date in a dark restaurant.)

Larry and Alice Riddle, of Centerville, were given tickets to The Blind Café in Salt Lake City by their son, who had dined at the original café in Zürich.

"It's nothing like what we expected," says Larry, who was worried he might be served slimy, disgusting food as a joke. "I thought they might try to be tricky, but it wasn't that at all."

In fact, he came away with a "profound" sense of gratitude. "I realize how grateful I am to be able to see," he says.

Jaleh Fidler, who attended with her husband, Scott, agrees. "The experience really centers you," says the Draper resident. "When you can't see, all your prejudices go out the window."