Blind Caf offers Valentine’s discount tonight

ASPEN – The Blind Caf, a special Valentine’s Day dinner that raises awareness – really raises awareness – about blindness, is offering a discount for tonight’s event at the Sky Hotel. The event – which includes a three-course meal, wine and live music – is now priced at $100 per person, $75 off the regular price. A portion of all proceeds goes to Challenge Aspen, a local nonprofit that provides outdoors recreation for people with physical handicaps.The Blind Caf takes place in total darkness, and the meal is served by a blind waitstaff. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the darkened atmosphere with keynote speaker Gerry Leary, a blind car mechanic and restaurateur who opened a caf and coffee roasting business, The Unseen Bean, in Boulder.Guests are given an experience that allows them to reconsider their senses of taste, touch, hearing and sight. While Rosh & One Eye Glass Broken, a string quartet with vocals, performs, diners are asked to keep completely silent. The meal – goat cheese-stuffed chicken breast, cheesy polenta, a baby bibb lettuce salad, and dark chocolate amaretto mousse dessert – is served partly family style, so that diners will be able to experience passing certain dishes without the benefit of sight.The Blind Caf concludes with The Black Box – a Valentine’s gift for each person that has to be explored through touch, smell and taste.Seatings are at 5 and 8:30 p.m. For tickets, call 1-800-838-3006, or go to brownpapertickets.com/event/215857. The discount code is “darkness.”