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Here’s a restaurant theme you didn’t see coming: darkness.

The concept of purposefully eating in complete pitch-black dark originated with Jorge Spielmann, a blind clergyman from Zurich. Dinner guests at the Spielmann house would wear blindfolds to show of solidarity with their host and to better understand his world. These guests found their dark dinning experiences fascinating. They found also that they enjoyed their food more—when you free yourself of having to see your sense of taste and smell becomes heightened. And that gave Spielmann the idea to open a dark restaurant, which he did in 1999.

Today you can stumble into dozens restaurants around the world where that question made famous in an American commercial in the 80s — Where’s the beef? — takes on a whole new meaning. Most dark restaurants employ blind waiters, offer a single set menu, and ban anything that could give off light (like cigarettes, cell phones and cameras) from the dinning area. All of them also have normally lit bathrooms though you’ll need to ask your waiter for help in finding it.

Here’s our illuminating look at some of the world’s dark restaurants:

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New to Moscow’s Krasnaya Presnya park: the world’s first ice sculpture gallery. This might also be the world’s coldest museum—the frozen exhibits here are kept at -10C (14F).

Visitors to the gallery are given special coat to wear that looks like a cross between an Eskimo’s parka and an alien costume from a low budget horror movie (see photos after the jump). The coats are partially to keep you warm (and looking ridiculous) but also to keep your body temperature from melting the displays. Even with the coats, to keep the temperature constant only ten visitors are allowed in the gallery at a time. The ice displays are open year round, making the ice sculptures in Krasnaya Presnya park a good place to cool off in the summer . . . or warm up in the Moscow winter. Entrance is 350 rubles (about $14, €9).

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Where else would the world’s highest wooden structure be located other than “The Wooden City” (which, as the arboreally astute among you may know, is Archangelsk, Russia)? Archangelsk did not only earn its nickname for the town’s numerous wooden dwellings but also for its wooden port building, wooden streets and museum that includes wooden artworks such dishes made from birch bark. The wooden skyscraper in the center of town towers over this termite’s dream town like Gargamel’s palace over The Smurf village. The 13-story, 144-foot (44-meter) tall building was constructed entirely without the use of machinery. For a well-researched article about some of the unusual history behind this unusual structure click on “learn more,” or see the photo below the jump.

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