Picky foodies do not have to worry about patrons talking with their mouths full at this restaurant.
The Greenpoint restaurant Eat is hosting silent meals to put patrons in touch with their innermost grub insights, the restaurant’s management says.
“This is an opportunity for people to experience food as they might not otherwise,” the organic-centric eatery’s quiet feast curator Nicholas Nauman said. “If we limit our engagement with speech, we can find our consciousness doing other things.”
Hungry diners at the first silent dinner on Sunday quieted for Nauman’s welcome speech and kept their lips zipped for the duration of the four-course meal, which featured gourmet dishes like pecan ricotta with vegan cheese over brown rice and Tokyo cabbage. As advertised, the lack of table chatter made it easier to commune with their $40 dinner, some attendees of the mute meal said.
“The language of eating was gone and it was much more about the sensuality,” said Frank Lyon of Cobble Hill.
Nauman plans to host the silent meals every few weeks and he expects them to get increasingly popular without any chatty diners breaking the spell.
“I don’t expect there to be many saboteurs,” he said.
Eat [124 Meserole Avenue between Leonard and Eckford streets in Greenpoint. (718) 389–8083, www.eatgreenpoint.com]
