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To read the website of Pitch Black – a cocktail bar in total darkness – you’d think you were signing up for an interesting, experimental tasting session packed with strong, alcoholic treats. It sounds like a sort of boozy Dans Le Noir ? (the famed Clerkenwell restaurant that put dining in darkness on the map).
Pitch Black didn’t live up to that promise when I visited, though. It felt more like a cross between a school-trip sleepover and the dark room at a sex club. By the end of the first cocktail, guests were yelling across the room to find out the relationship statuses of others in the dark. By the end of the second, one man was wandering blindly around, crashing into tables as he followed his penis in the direction of the drunk girls beckoning him. Towards the end of the night, the relative quiet of one shy couple on a date had other guests braying: ‘URGH, ARE YOU SHAGGING OVER THERE?’ Meanwhile, one person began punching a table.
The drinks themselves were great: razor-sharp whisky sours, zingy margaritas. And at £39 for what I think was five drinks (I lost count in the dark) it was very good value. It’s just a shame that most guests seemed to be using the USP as an excuse to act like they were auditioning for ‘Dating in the Dark’ – and, worse, that they were allowed to.