I was thinking the other day, so I took an aspirin, about whether that restaurant in London that was catering to the nude diner was still in business. When I logged on here I noticed Bob had updated that topic already, but I went ahead to post this one separate.
So I did a search for “naturist dining” to see if any new ones had popped up. Among the results I found this article on Forbes from about 18 months ago about the proliferation of new "
nudie foodie" establishments.
There are many restaurants that are in nudist/naturist resorts, so I don’t count those. I was wondering how many were stand alone businesses that have to survive in a
real market where they have to sell their brand to the public.
There was the 1st one that Bob posted
on this site about a couple years ago about one in London,
The Bunyadi.
Another regular here, Peter (pjcomp), alerted us in that topic to a place in Tokyo,
The Amrita, which began it’s effort in a blatant attempt to create an exclusive place only for the beautiful people to dine in a decidedly erotic atmosphere that had nothing to do with natursm. The Forbes article mentions this one and that it has modified it’s ‘requirements’ to enter to allow ‘normal’ people to come in. It's also not clear whether they are still in business.
And then there is the most recent one Bob posted about, in Bristol,
The Greenbank.
In Milan there is,
L’Italo Americano.
And in Melbourne
Jo & Lehmo’s Nude Food.
With two articles about a Paris eatery, O’naturel, on a
news site.
I use the term lightly as there are no news organizations extant, with another mention on a
travel site.
The Paris spot is in the same arrondissement as the "
Bois de Vincennes Park" which recently set aside an area for nudists to legally spend time exploring the park dressed
appropriately. I seem to remember this showing up here a while back.
So we have places in London, Melbourne, Paris, Milan and Tokyo. I am not aware of one here in America. I did run across mention of nudist clubs and organizations here that will rent a facility for an event, but nothing yet about a stand alone nude/naturist dining establishment. The score now is to the UK, 2 up. We’ll see how long they last.
So the upshot is that there seems to be a trend toward catering to that, I realize it’s limited, market. From reading those articles there is always an initial reaction of a giddy excitement about the whole nudity aspect which seems to taper off. Those that attend for the thrill of it, fall away leaving the patrons that are accustomed to social nudity to try to keep the ball rolling. Hopefully those that give it a try will come back after the 1st blush
to continue the new experience.
One reporter commented that he didn’t see the point of it or that it didn’t make a real impression on him that dining in the nude would be a unique experience. Expecting a unique experience, without considering the fare available, puts most of the burden on the nude aspect to bring a pleasant response to people that are already uneasy about being out in public with no clothes on. Most likely many will not be repeat customers.
Overall though, I think the fact of normal people going to an establishment for a normal (to them) evening that happens to include being naked around others will only help get rid of obsessions on appearance and fashion.
Duane
