Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Naked?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - [size=-1]The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn't stop there.

Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got naked for the monthly "Clothing Optional Dinner."

"It's exciting to be in a restaurant nude," said George Keyes, 65, a retired junior high school English teacher.

Nude yes, but not unadorned.

Keyes, a lifelong nudist, wore a necklace, earrings and a black leather "genital bracelet" with red studs. And white sneakers.

The dinner was started by a group of New York nudists who wanted something a bit more elegant than the wilderness getaways and beach resorts they generally frequent.

"When you go away on holiday it's more you're roughing it in the woods, whereas this is a really nice restaurant," said Keyes, a member of gay nudist group Males Au Naturel, or MAN.

John Ordover set up the dining club about a year ago, recruiting members through word of mouth and the Internet.

"Next month is our Easter bonnet event, where everybody has to come wearing an Easter bonnet," said Ordover, a heavyset man with a jovial smile and glasses.



SOMETHING TO SIT ON ...

Around 30 people arrived for the buffet dinner -- organizers specified no hot soup on the menu -- most of them middle-aged, several married couples, some singles, the youngest perhaps in their 30s.

"They're a good class of people, they're no different to you or I," said John Bussi, owner of the midtown restaurant. "They're not hurting anybody, it's not a wild Roman orgy."

Health regulations mean staff must remain clothed even if they wanted to join in. And diners must bring something to sit on -- a towel or, for discerning women, an elegant silk scarf.

The restaurant's manager covered the windows to maintain privacy at the strictly private party. Extra heaters kept the temperature at a comfortable level for nudity.


Ordover's wife, Carol, said they first went on a naturist holiday five years ago and she found the experience empowering. But, she explained, it's "the least sexual thing you can possibly imagine."

"Men in nudist resorts are striking a bargain. They get to see as many naked women as they like as long as they are polite and look them straight in the eye," she said.

Sherry Stafford, a petite and elegant 51-year-old with blond hair and high heels, brought brochures and videos advertising her travel business, Internaturally Travel.

One of the flyers was for a resort called "Hedonism II" whose slogan is "Be wicked for a week." But she said nudists should not be confused with swingers.

"Wearing clothes and going to church does not protect you from moral evil," Stafford said, lamenting what she saw as a tendency to demonize people just because they like to be naked.

Sandy, a slim woman in her 40s, said she never felt self-conscious about her body and was comfortable dining in the nude. But she did admit to being a bit more nervous before a recent naked yoga class attended by around 25 people.

"Everyone was a little concerned there would be people looking around but the good thing is nobody really was," she said, standing at the restaurant's bar before dinner.

"If you try to maintain a yoga position you're going to fall if you start looking around -- and that's more embarrassing than anything else."

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One of the public European news networks covered the story. The U.S. media would never show that type of material. It's a shame we have to go to Europe to see what's happening in the U.S. (unless, of course, it's about Michael Jackson or Scott Peterson)

 

Thanks for posting the story.



I have to say, though, that the dude who wore sneakers while otherwise nude is a loser. What's the point? For one thing, if you've got footwear on, you're not nude. For another, why wear shoes? Fashion? If he were into fashion, he wouldn't be going nude, so then what, is it because he's afraid of stepping on something bad in a restaurant? Give me a break, pansy.

And I was kind of startled by the idea that he was wearing some sort of genital collar. That seems to cross the boundary between nudism as a relaxing freedom, and nudism for prurient reasons.

I'd love to check out a nude yoga class, that's for sure.

If you can do yoga nude, and you're a guy with a hairy ass and whatever, you are one ballsy motherfucker. I don't even know if I could or would. I think the idea of it is wonderful, just like the idea of doing anything nude is, but think of how uneasy everyone in the class would likely be. The only way I could see that being broken would be if the class were together for a while, numerous sessions, and all got comfortable with each other. And if they were to get that comfortable, what kind of comfortability would it be? Seems to me it would almost have to be like an orgy-willingness happening, in order for everyone to get into a relaxed-enough mindframe that the yoga would be at all productive.

Any other thoughts? I'm interested in people's reaction to this, especially the yoga class more than the dinner.

-Jeffrey

 

Oh Please! This is so typical for non-naturists, to have this kind of prejudices! It's OK with me if you stick to your good ol'foot fetish, but keep your yoga-fantasies for yourself!

 

what an amazing experience! i have to say, though, i cant stand having shoes or socks on if the rest of me is naked it bothers me

 

amazingggggggg!!!!

 

The article does not give details on this, and the pictures show at least one barefoot person, but one possible answer would be that the restaurant rules required footwear just as they require they they have something personal to sit upon....as most barefooters have seen many establishments post shoes required notices, even when there are no regulatory ordinances requiring it.

The article also mentions people wearing jewelry...does that qualify as 'not nude' in your book as well?

 

Jefry you have to remember some people might not enjoy being barefoot. Also feet get cold VERY easily when not used to it, thats a wood flooring and wood can be either nice and warm or horribly cold. its their personal choice to wear shoes is it is their personal choice to wear clothes. I think its a wonderful idea especially as its called "clothes optional" .... becuase that gives you the woderful feeling of choice. "hmm maybe i will wear a shawl but no other clothes" or "hmm maybe some long gloves and diamonte earings but no dinner gown" ... its a choice.

 

I think I would lose my appetite sitting next to nude people like that....... most of the people that do get naked are a bit on the ugly side..... just look at those fat fucks in the picture! thats the last place I want to see nude people, when IM eating a salad and a steak.

 

Madcrappie, I think the point of nudism is in large part to shed and abandon the notions of "beautiful/ugly bodies" and realize that we are more about the mind inside the body, and the body is just a husk, and they come in all shapes and sizes.


Yes, I still do differentiate between those I think are attractive and those I think are ugly, but that's only for the purposes of relating on a romantic/sexual level. (In other words, I don't go to bed with people who have nice minds but gross bodies -- I try for the nice mind&body ones!)

Is there so much difference between sitting across a table from someone who has a really ugly face and is fully clothed, and sitting there with someone who may have an okay face but saggy breasts, or a big tubby gut? Come on... Let's be fair. My body is reasonably attractive to some, and to others it's not. None of us is perfect, and that's the wonderful part about the acceptance that nudists grant to everyone's imperfection. No one is forced to measure up to some impossible-to-attain standard.

-Jeffrey

 

Too many people just dont fall into that perfect body category that everybody aims for so its not realisitic to expect everyone to look that way because more than likely they wont and youll end up being dissapointed. Its best to just accept people as they are and love and care about them for who they are and what theyve got on the inside.

 

My nudist place - www.lakebronson.com - is clothing optional, the weather here can be wet and/or cool. This only make sense. And we are out in the woods with all kinds of prickly things. I have to wear some kinda shoes even if I am completely nude up there. And you are right about another thing - my feet get cold real easy (PAD) and it is painful. So it's not always weird it someone is nude and have covered feet.

 

And the more I've opened my mind to accepting imperfections in other's bodies and, maybe more importantly, in my own, I've come to realize that all bodies are inherently beautiful if the souls within them are beautiful.

 

The only problem is, lately in the world there are an awful lot of really fuckin' ugly souls running around.

-Jeffrey

 

I thought it was interesting a restaurant would do something like this, sure is cool... And I think it's sorta strange too for people to keep their shoes on, but if that's what they want well, I sure wouldn't tell them they can't. It just looks weird, far weirder than being totally naked (or with jewelry). I keep hearing people have such sensitive feet they don't even like walking on smooth tile barefoot and I am quite willing to take those comments at face value, but I can't understand it from personal experience at all. Even before I went barefoot regularly tiles and such stuff never bothered me, even the somewhat irregular stuff.

 

I dont know why people think they need to mix those two things, naked people and food........ hell, do you see buffets at strip joints?? no. why would you really like to see naked people while you are eating a taco..... gross.

 

It's not about wanting to see anyone naked and with food; it's about wanting to be naked, and not having to put on clothes just because you'll be eating.

-Jeffrey

 

But you're not going there to stare at naked people. You're going there to eat. You and/or the people around you may be naked, but it means just as much as whether or not someone is wearing a hat or not. It just doesn't matter.