Restaurant goers will be dining in the dark tonight
A SPECIAL ‘Dine In The Dark’ event will be staged at the newly opened House of Plates restaurant at Chapel Street, Castlebar, tonight (Thursday, November 10) to give customers the experience of what it's like to be blind for one night.
The event is being held in association with the National Council for the Blind and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, writes Tom Gillespie
Head chef at the House of Plates, Barry Ralph, explained: “We will sell out the restaurant for 55 tickets. At the door the customers will be given an apron and a blindfold and a secret menu. They pay €30 a head and all profits go to the National Council for the Blind.
“Customers will sit down at 7.30 and they are not allowed to take off the blindfold for the entire duration of the meal. If you want to go to the bathroom you put up your hand and someone will escort you out.
“The guests will not have a clue what they are getting. They will have to use their other senses. It is just to let people experience what it is like to be blind for one night.”
Castlebar native Barry opened House of Plates 14 weeks ago. “It was a big decision,” he admitted. “I thought about it for years. I did a pop-up restaurant two years ago at Christmas called Flame on Ellison Street and ever since then I have had an itch to do my own thing.
“I got married to Helen not long after that and we were saving for a house. We always wanted to open our own business. I was head chef at the Bay Leaf Restaurant in Horkan’s Garden Centre, Turlough, for seven years but the itch was there and I could not get rid of it.
“I had this idea that I wanted to open a casual tapas style of restaurant. Helen and I went to Barcelona for a week. We ate out three or four times a day getting ideas and doing research. When we came home, sat down and talked about it, and we said it was not going to work here.”
Barry continued: “I still wanted to do the small plates concept but I wanted to make it accessible to the people of Mayo and give them what they know and what they are used of. If I had to open another normal, boring restaurant I would not have bothered. I would have no interest as there are loads of them. There was no challenge in that.
“I started doing research on the small plates concept, went around and looked at all the best suppliers in Mayo that we could get. They all loved it. I went and talked to the Credit Union. We got a business plan in place and thank God they gave us the money.
“I did not want to go out and just buy furniture. We got pallets and did all the seating out of them. We get the chairs from Knock Shrine, where Helen is youth minister. We got the tables made. All the pipe work is from an old factory recycled, as is the galvanise around the bar.”
Barry grows his own herbs, has bees out the back and will be growing vegetables in a polytunnel next year. He got a beer licence recently and will be bringing on four or five local craft beers, and is looking forward to taking bookings for Christmas parties.
Barry trained as a professional chef in GMIT. He has worked in some of Mayo’s leading hotels and restaurants, including Knockranny House Hotel, Westport, and An Carraig, Castlebar, where he was head chef for five years.
Aged just 24, Barry was the only Mayo chef to be nominated for best chef in Connaught by Food and Wine Magazine. More recently, he was nominated for best Mayo chef by the Restaurants Association of Ireland. His cooking has also been noted for a recommendation in the prestigious Georgina Campbell Guide to Good Dining in Ireland. He is a former Flo Gas Mayo Masterchef of the Year as well.
For House of Plates, Barry hand-picked his staff from around the place. “Thank God the seven I have are great staff,” he said. “The investment is big and thankfully we hit the ground running. The margins are tight. I could have bought chickens from Poland or Holland, or lamb the same way, and I could have got it for half he price I am now paying for it. But I have chosen to use the best stuff I can get, and I am paying top price for quality. I just hope that people appreciate what we are trying to do.
“Our menu consists of snacks that you can nibble on while waiting for your food to come. We have the menu broken down into three – land, sea and earth. We try and do what is in season at the time.
“Our focus is on small and sharing plates. Most of our diners enjoy two to three plates per person with a side dish. We are passionate about using locally produced, seasonal and artisan foods. In House Of Plates, we provide a new dining experience for the customer, giving them the opportunity to sample new and exciting dishes with the small plate concept, accompanied by exemplary service.
“This new concept in dining is proving to be extremely successful in Europe. We serve small plates of food at a reasonable cost, each plate costing between €8 to €14.”
Dinner is served from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday and brunch is served from 12 noon to 4 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday.
For reservations at House of Plates, call (094) 9250742 or email reservations@houseofplates.ie.