
'The Restaurant of Order Mistakes' Employs Waiters With Dementia (2017) - khc
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2017/06/05/the-restaurant-of-order-mistakes-employs-waiters-with-dementia/
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corin_
Somewhat related though very different, there are restaurants called Dans Le
Noir ("in the dark") - founded in Paris but now in several countries, though
so far I've only been to the one in London.

You choose one of a few set menus without knowing what's in it (IIRC, roughly
"meat eater", "fish eater", "vegetarian") and give any specific allergies or
really hated food types. You are then led into a pitch black room with
absolutely no light leakage (no phones/etc. allowed) where you'll be served
and eat your food without being able to see a single thing.

I believe the kitchen staff are hired purely on their cooking, but the waiters
are visually impaired people who can lead you to your table and serve your
food flawlessly without sight.

Their sales pitch is more about the uniqueness of the experience than about
supporting blind people, but the fact that it does create this unique job that
they're better qualified to do than people with normal vision is nice.

And it's a really great experience, although not particularly cheap.

[https://london.danslenoir.com/en/home/](https://london.danslenoir.com/en/home/)

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song
Unfortunately the food is rather bad for the price (at least in the Paris
branch). So it's a fun experience but you end up eating food that's barely
better than cafeteria food at the price of a fine dining restaurant...

I was really disappointed...

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tim333
Noir Saigon is pretty good
[https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d715...](https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d7157553-Reviews-
Noir-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html)

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jnty
It seems like a well-meant idea but how do you prevent it becoming
exploitative? Exposing dementia patients to random members of the public in a
service role with no understanding of the state of their condition seems like
a pretty good way of frequently upsetting them. And how does employment by
consent work when you can't actually quite remember why you're in a situation
and how you got there?

It sounds like - probably to address these concerns - this is a short-lived
'activity' rather than a going concern, potentially with hand-selected and
well-briefed guests rather than arbitrary customers off the street.

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Angostura
It was put together by Maggie's a dementia charity which in the UK has a very
good reputation.

~~~
jnty
I was a bit surprised by this too because Maggie's is actually a cancer
charity in the UK. [1]

As I say I imagine it's being handled fairly sensitively in reality. I'm more
objecting to the whimsical feel-good description in the article which sort of
denies agency to the dementia patients and treats them as funny props.

[1] [https://www.maggiescentres.org/about-
maggies/](https://www.maggiescentres.org/about-maggies/)

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acomjean
In the US there is a trend to not write orders down (the reason is unclear to
me:it’s saves paper and makes it mor personal?), short term memorize them and
run to the computer and type them in.

This tends to lead to a fair number of mistakes, and makes those with
allergies ver nervous.

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gowld
It's a midguided attempted at showing off how smart and talented and sociable
the staff are.

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Loughla
I don't know why you're being down-voted - this is the answer. It's a ploy, in
most cases outside of long-time career waiters/waitresses, by many chains to
make their staff seem more professional. It's a literal marketing tool that is
taught to staff in many chain restaurants which employ younger, non-'career'
staff.

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GuB-42
The article focuses on the mistake of not getting the dish you ordered. Which
can indeed be fun if you are open when it comes to food.

But other kinds of mistakes can be a lot less fun. For example not getting any
service at all, or having to pay more than expected.

I wonder how that restaurant deals with that.

~~~
BrentOzar
> The article focuses on the mistake of not getting the dish you ordered.
> Which can indeed be fun if you are open when it comes to food.

As long as you don't have allergies...

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phalangion
If you have allergies I can imagine you'd just avoid this restaurant.

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DanBC
In the UK we also have the National Star College (an educational establishment
for people with disabilities and ABI) which runs two bistros in and near
Cheltenham. These have a good reputation, mostly because the quality of the
food is really important to them.

[https://www.nationalstar.org/](https://www.nationalstar.org/)

[https://www.nationalstar.org/products-services-
facilities/st...](https://www.nationalstar.org/products-services-
facilities/star-bistro-ullenwood/)

There's also Wriggly Worm, which has links to Star Bistro.

[https://www.thewigglyworm.org.uk/](https://www.thewigglyworm.org.uk/)

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chantelles
In the Netherlands there is a chain called Brownies and Downies staffed by
folks with Down Syndrome. The Dutch are v pragmatic. I went and was humbled -
the staff spoke way more English than I spoke Dutch after living there (I'm
Canadian) for months.
[https://www.browniesanddownies.nl](https://www.browniesanddownies.nl)

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vmlinuz
Essentially the same idea was covered in a recent UK tv show:
[https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-restaurant-that-
make...](https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-restaurant-that-makes-
mistakes)

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tsusr
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirchi_and_Mime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirchi_and_Mime)
,along similar lines in Mumbai (IN)

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mpol
For reference, it still seems to popup every now and then, not just in 2017:
[http://www.mistakenorders.com/en/home.html](http://www.mistakenorders.com/en/home.html)

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datpuz
I love this. I wonder: would something wonderful like this actually be illegal
the US due to the fact that you'd technically be discriminating by hiring only
those with dementia?

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dahfizz
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted - it's an interesting question.

My understanding is that this is would not be illegal because of how
discrimination laws work in the US. We have protected classes that can't be
descriminated against, but we don't have a generic "no discrimination"
employment law.

For example, it's illegal to discriminate against old people, colored people,
gay people, disabled people, etc when hiring. It would not necessarily be
illegal to discriminate against neurotypical people because they are not a
protected class.

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chrischen
I remember they also tried something like this where fully paralyzed people
controlled robot waiters with their eyes from a bed.

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ape4
Ask for your bill, they forget. So you need to ask again, they forget.

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mikorym
Sounds fantastically Japanese.

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dang
Url changed from [https://mymodernmet.com/waiters-dementia-restaurant-
tokyo/](https://mymodernmet.com/waiters-dementia-restaurant-tokyo/), which
points to this.

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Semaphor
The original URL has way more information than the new source. More pictures
and more text.

