So welcome to In My Own Backyard. I'm Christopher Rudder. So they say that when
you're missing one of your senses that your remaining senses become heightened.
So we're here in Onoar which is a restaurant which serves you food
completely in the dark. Trying to mimic how a blind person lives their life day
to day. By turning off the lights and being served food and not really knowing
what it is that you're eating you're gonna have to rely on your other senses.
So this is In My Own Backyard. Let's do it.
No easy way out. You just gotta figure it out. Living my life with no regrets to get the right, the right to celebrate.
Celebrate. You gotta fight for your right to celebrate.
Alright so welcome to In My Own Backyard. I'm here with the owner FVNG. He is the owner of Onoar.
What was the initial reason for having a restaurant like this? Like how did it start? Where did it come from?
It started with my predecessor whose name he came from Lebanon. He learned the concept in Europe.
But he thought Canada would be one of the nice location to open one first thing in Montreal.
And then being very successful over there. He opened the second one. The same brand name called Onoar in Toronto in 2009.
So what's the purpose of it? What are you trying to accomplish with having the restaurant set in the dark?
We want to give an opportunity to eat in the dark and explain what life is like to be blind without any wishing.
So this is number one. Number two, we like to provide the job opportunity for the wishing paired. As you know the fraction of employment is very low.
It's below 35% for the wishing paired. So we like to provide this opportunity.
Even within the restaurant industry, this is almost a reverse service model. Because in nowadays the wishing, normal people would serve, guide, help a little bit more for the wishing paired.
But in this case, the sighted normal people like us are guided, served by the wishing paired.
How does it feel to have a job like this? In your typical work field, your vision is required.
So now you're in a job setting where it's more your favor now. How is that for you?
It's perfect for us because really in the real world, I guess you would say, it's pretty difficult to get a job these days with someone that's visually impaired or has some disability.
It's usually only the big companies that do that, not the small companies. So this is very unique in the fact that we can work in a smaller company and feel like we're really a family.
And it is role reversal because people that have disabilities always have to rely on people. For myself, I always have to rely on people, even my kids.
And to be in here, people actually have to rely on me. So that's a good feeling. So even if it's for those few hours or whatever.
So explain to me, what's the process? So from beginning to end, how do people say I'm coming to the restaurant for the first time I made my reservation? So how does it work?
When they come in, other than we don't turn on lots of lights like now, but you do see things. So it's normal. And we do give them a manual to read.
So initially, like a normal process, one of our staff will come to attend the guests and take the order, the food and the drink. And afterwards, the guests will be introduced to one of the blind server.
And then the blind server normally give a very kind introduction. And after that, the guests will be taken inside the dining room, which is completely dark.
So at that point, the guests completely rely on the server.
I know maybe you're not an expert in it, but what are some of the different types of visuals in here?
There are so many different diseases. Like once I started working here, I wasn't aware of any of them either. I just sort of heard, oh, you're blind, you're blind.
But there are so many different degrees. Some people see like a pinhole. Some people see cloudy, foggy, whatever.
I describe my vision as in like, I don't have enough pixels. So I see people, everybody looks good to me.
So I think I have great eyesight. Everybody should have my eyesight because, you know, I don't discriminate.
Just to me, everybody looks wonderful because I don't see all the details like pimples or wrinkles or anything like that.
So we should all come to you for coffee?
Yeah, exactly. But then, yeah, there are some people that don't see anything.
Apparently, I've heard only about 8% of the population that are blind see like the blackness that they're dying in.
