The owners of the suggestively named “O’naturel” restaurant in Paris, said they would be shutting down the eatery in February due to a shocking lack of diners fascinated with watching naked strangers feed themselves.
Thus, having severely overestimated consumer desire to have strangers watch them eat in the buff, Paris’ first nudist café will soon be history.
‘We will only remember the good times, meeting beautiful people and customers who were delighted to share exceptional moments,’ the restaurateurs, Mike and Stephane Saada, said.
The pair had gambled on the fact that Paris is a global tourist destination for nudists, although the 42-year-old twins prefer to keep their clothes on themselves. As the city of lights boasts a number of top-end no-clothes-necessary beach resort sites for summer vacationers, the owners felt they would be able to offer a year-round option for those ready to take the lifestyle to the next level… because the only thing more appealing than combining naked human flesh with ingesting food is combining it with freezing cold temperatures.
Dinners disrobed in a cloakroom after entering, and were given nothing more than a pair of slippers to wear to the dinner table. A massive white curtain remained drawn over the front window in order to ensure the diners’ privacy, at least among those not exposed themselves.
For hygiene’s sake, the chairs were all equipped with black covers which were changed after every use.
There are naturally other factors at play in the restaurant closing aside from a shy customer base, one obvious example being the $60-per-person price tag for the restaurant’s upper-scale meals, including lobster and snails.
Dr. Elinor Garely. Editor-in-Chief, Wines.Travel and TourismExecutives.com; Reporter, eturbonews.com and etn.travel
•Expert Witness: Hospitality, Travel /Tourism industry with TASA Technical Advisory Services for Attorneys
•Award winning international journalist/consultant
Former Professor of Management/Marketing; Coordinator - Hotel, Travel /Tourism program - CUNY, BMCC
•Former Professor - Business Management /Marketing faculty - Long Island University, NYU Stern School of Business, University of Shanghai, PRC
•International marketing and management executive with Playboy Clubs and Hotels, the Copacabana and related restaurants/ clubs; Helmsley Spear (Hospitality Consultant Division), Babcock and Wilcox
•Developed/implemented first hotel joint venture in Russia; first hotel/restaurant management program at University of Shanghai, PRC; designed/ implemented hotel management training programs for hotels in the United States, China (PRC), Malaysia and Caribbean
•Received Ford Foundation grant to study role of Community Colleges in PRC; consultant to the government of Kenya to explore new economic development opportunities in the USA
•Research includes an analysis of Guest Safety/Security at 5-Star/Luxury Hotels in Bangkok, Thailand, Cape Town, South Africa and Miami, Florida (Dissertation); Child Trafficking; eMarketing and We Know What Women Want in Hotels
•Former Real Estate Sales/Broker: Hotel Industry
•Doctorate in International Business from the University of Sarasota (Florida): focus on hotel, travel and tourism and guest safety/security
•MBA in International Marketing and Business Management from New York University, Stern School of Business with Honors from the American Marketing Association; Former Member of BGS Honor Society
• BS Degree, Lesley College, Art / Education
•Former Member - BOD, Sutton Area Community organization, International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association and HSMAI. Current Member - NY Travel Writers Association, Princeton Club of New York