Chase Burdick

Managing Editor

cxb1345@psu.edu

Scranton – A restaurant owned by Josh Balz and James Olecki has taken their commitment to enhancing diners’ experience to another strange level. To make a visitor’s experience memorable, Josh Balz added fried tarantulas and waffles to the restaurant’s menu.

Noir Dark Spirits are the name, and adding ‘dark twists’ to traditional meals is their game. Last year’s menu touted multiple meals featuring crickets. This year’s dish comes as a new restaurant location is opening up. Balz stated that he wanted a new dish to demonstrate how different their menu is.

The dish itself has real zebra tarantulas sourced from a company out in Boston that prepares tarantulas for consumption. That’s right, no hairy legs in your tarantula and waffles! The waffle portion of the dish is made of buttermilk waffles shaped like spiderwebs, and the meal is topped off with smoked maple syrup.

Despite tarantulas not being many people’s idea of comfort food, the meal still sold out on the first night the restaurant featured it. As Balz mentioned in an interview with ABC News, “People are more adventurous than you think.”

Noir Dark Spirits is located at 222 Wyoming Avenue in Scranton and are open Wednesday through Saturday from 5-11 p.m. You can find more information on their Facebook page or website.