Naked Restaurant in London.

[Greenbare Woods]

I found this story about the naked dining restaurant in London.   

http://www.timeout.com/london/blog/exclusive-this-is-what-its-like-to-eat-at-the-naked-restaurant-060616?_utm_source=1-2-2

[nuduke]

This is an interesting idea.  It's hard to work out if its about genuine naturism or it has seedier objectives.  The fact that there is a HUGE waiting list for tables indicates a huge interest in spending time nude in company whether for genuinely naturist reasons or more prurient motives.  Being a public restaurant and not charging a membership fee or anything would suggest that it is somehow doing the right thing vis a vis naturism.

The prices are pretty steep!

I hope that it catches on and that naked dining becomes available in every town. If you think about it, a restaurant is a really great place for the provision, evangelism and promotion of proper naturism.  There will always be controversy about the provision of naturist areas in parks and other natural surroundings due to the fact that people who might not want to see naturism happening might see it and be upset/object.  But in a restaurant, your attendance is completely voluntary, there is a good reason for being there (dinner!), the management are entirely complicit because that's the way they want to run their restaurant, there is no possibility of the narrow minded public accidentally seeing and, being a privately owned restaurant, it's not something that needs  permission of the law, police,council etc etc

It opens this Saturday - hopefully there will be reviews and reports which do indicate a positive impression of naturism and why people wish to dine naked.

John

[John P]

Well, it seems to be going ahead, but the whole thing says "stunt" to me.

To answer the question at the end of this article: "Yes."
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jun/07/naked-restaurant-bunyadi-bums-on-seats-london

[JOhnGw]

I agree about "stunt" but if it gets a few people to nderstand about social naturism it won't be a bad thing.

Incidentally i have dined out naked in Birmingham many times at Clover Spa Hotel.

[eyesup]

Historically, stunts have been used in social demonstrations. Sometimes to good effect. If this doesn't take off, it will remain a stunt.

If it begins a series of changes in attitudes, it will become a catalyst. After the novelty wears off and if they decide to continue, it will become part of the background noise and people will start looking for the next "Bunyadi".

Such is the nature of celebrity.

Duane

[Greenbare Woods]

Well, it seems to be going ahead, but the whole thing says "stunt" to me.

It may be a stunt, but that's not bad.   Suppose only 50  people a day come to eat naked.  Over 6 months that's about 9,000 people who are exposed to social nudity, most of whom may never have done any social nudity before.  Even assuming that half their crowd are otherwise regular nudists, in a year the "stunt" exposes thousands of people to the enjoyment of it not mattering if you spill gravy on your tie or red wine on your shirt.   And that doesn't count all the readers who now have read several news articles about naked dinner.

By next year there will be thousands more people who have enjoyed being seen naked, don't mind being seen naked, thousands who will not call the coppers if they see someone else naked.  I'd bet that some of them may drive home naked after dinner, or show up at a naked hike, walk, or beach.  Maybe one or two will find their way here eventually.

Every stunt that creates more naked human experience of any kind is good for free range nudism in general. 

Carpe Diem!

[nuduke]

Bob,

As also one with a penchant for statistical analysis, I agree entirely with your numerical extrapolation other than to note two points: 1. that there may be a small contingent of customers that visited but didn't like it and remain unconvinced, perhaps still liable to call the police* (thank you for using the English vernacular.  I practiced saying it in an American accent - not the same! ), and not giving nudism a good press to others.  Let us hope this group is non-existent or tiny. After all, if you book well in advance, you must want to do it at least a bit! 2. The quote in the article says 6000 places which indicates it is a temporary popup site.

In short, again I agree, stunt or not it will sew seeds which hopefully will bear fruit in future by energising and motivating people to ask for and create more social naturist opportunity.  Hopefully the restaurant will flourish and become permanent, doubling the positive effusion that you forecast, Bob.

* Afterthought: maybe even if someone doesn't like it, even then positive effects might follow in that they may be less liable to call the cops after seeing a naturist.

John

[JOhnGw]

It is a pop-up site and is currently well oversubscribed.
If sufficiently profitable it may well be followed by other similar ventures.

[Peter S]

I've lost the link now, but a couple of weeks back a couple of Australian radio DJs made fun of the London naked dining - and were promptly inundated with Aussies wanting to do it! So they got a local restaurant involved, had a similar problem of oversubscription, and the evening apparently went down a storm. The staff went naked as well as the diners, the only ones clothed were the DJs.

A preview of the Bunyadi restaurant in London in Time Out suggests the lights were kept so low that each diner could only see their immediate companion, so it wasn't an event of Tunick-like camaraderie.

peter

[eyesup]

. . . the lights were kept so low that each diner could only see their immediate companion.

In a dining setting    that's not entirely out of the ordinary. We have to consider that many of those at the restaurant were concerned about the fact of being out in a normally forbidden place for nudity and not so much that they were being seen naked by strangers.

Some may have been used to that and didn't even consider that.

Duane

[Peter S]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/10/japans-new-naked-restaurant-will-turn-away-anyone-overweight-eld/

Seems the Japanese are getting in on the act, but they seem to have missed the point. First off the "naked" diners will be given paper underwear to put on, and only "beautiful" people will be allowed in - and they must weight less than 15 kilometers (sic)

peter

[eyesup]

15 km of anything is pretty hefty!

Duane

[nuduke]

Hilarious!  Paper pants!  Why bother.  Feels like an establishment for promoting the 'male gaze' rather than a genuine naturist venue.
John

[eyesup]

. . an establishment for promoting the 'male gaze'. .

With a patriarchal culture so firmly in place it's not likely to see any other kind of effort any time soon.

Come to think of it, has anyone seen any kind of what we would term "traditional or maybe routine" naturism from any Asian country? I'm sure there is I just don't recall seeing any.

Duane

[Peter S]

I seem to recall an attempt in Thailand, I think, last year for some nude beach olympics (which happens Australia) but the Thai authorities clamped down. It's also Thailand recently banned the growing practice of western tourists to naked selfies at  cultural sites. So to answer the point, there seems to be an anti-nude bias in the region.

At the same time India has the naked sadhus, or holy men, who live naked and gather each year for a swim in one of the holy rivers, and Japanese hot Spring spas are often cited as places where everyone is nude - though there may be his and hers facilities.

Peter