Just when you start to thinking Heston has started to wane and find his sanity he reminds us why his restaurant and his approach are so original.
The idea is very simple. People have to wait 2 months to for their table at The Fat Duck so why is that time not being used to create buzz and excitement for the customer. It is a period when a customers expectations can be built and their senses stimulated in anticipation. We all know how important memory cues are, whether they are visual, audible, or olfactory, memories and associations can be made before the meal and then harnessed during the meal.
Once a booking has been made people are emailed a link to an animated journey through a land that aims to whet both the appetite and senses in anticipation. Heston wanted to bring the sensations and excitement of "a kid in a sweet shop" to his customers before they had entered the restaurant.
The result is a tail that takes you through evocative and surreal landscapes, that have more in common with Alice in Wonderland than the real world, that lead you to the entrance of a sweet shop. The Neighbourhood decided the sweet shop would be pitch black but should stimulate you audibly rather than visually. They used the voice of John Hury and a binaural soundscape to provoke and draw out customers memories of childhood and bring them back to a time when they felt like "a child in a sweet shop".
Like A Kid In A Sweet Shop. from The Neighbourhood on Vimeo.
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