Faro Tapas Bar, MONA – WHAT THE..?! TRAVEL REVIEW

About MONA’s Faro Tapas Bar

Faro Tapas Bar lies at the end of the MONA adventure in the newest wing called Pharos. By the way, MONA = Museum of Old and New Art and it’s located in Berriedale, Tasmania.

MONA’s Faro Tapas Bar Revives Me

Faro Tapas Bar resuscitated me after exploring the dark depths of MONA for hours.

The reason for this is that when you enter Faro Tapas Bar the sudden panoramic explosion of natural light, free-flowing space, and view of land and water zaps you like a defibrillator. You’re compelled to inhale deeply and snap out of the dazed consciousness you had in the tunnels of MONA.

However, I didn’t foresee that we were about to have a bizarre and unexplained experience in Faro Tapas Bar that was going to leave me breathless. To find out what happened, keep reading.

 

Faro’s Food, Drink and Gliding Glass of Sparkling

For my full recovery I required the intake of two more elements from Faro Tapas Bar: food and drink.

 

I was loving the Manchego croquettes, with lemon emulsion and pickled chilIi ($5.50AUD each)…

…and Jim was enjoying the raw fish with pickled fennel, yogurt, and fermented cucumber ($24AUD).

However, it was then that something out of the ordinary caught my eye; my glass of sparkling wine began to glide across the table by itself.

Before you think, yeah right, know that 1st February 2018 I received a confirmation email from MONA’s Communications Team about the unexplained incident.

To find out more, read on! After you’ve summed up the situation, you can let me know your theory on how the glass behaved like this in the Comments box at the bottom of this post.

 

MONA’s cameras confirm my gliding glass at Faro Tapas Bar

MONA, Tasmania is a pretty WHAT THE..?! place in its own right. However, Jim and I experienced the following extra-ordinary and unusual incident on Thursday 4th January 2018 in MONA’s Faro Tapas Bar.

As I mentioned, MONA’s Communications Team confirmed this after replaying their CCTV footage, and their response is further down this post.

Not only that, I received further confirmation because MONA allowed the publication of my two blog comments on their website regarding the strange occurrence. You can find them in this post too. Thanks, MONA!

 

I contact MONA about Faro Tapas Bar’s mysterious moving glass…

I first contacted [email protected] about my mysterious moving glass on 5th January, i.e. the day after the incident.

 

However, it took a while for MONA – to get back to me and to publish my posts on the MONA blog about the gliding glass.

This didn’t surprise me.

I could have been a fanciful patron swept up by the wings of imagination buzzing inside MONA’s hive of creativity or disorientated after several hours of exploring MONA’s reality…

…so they needed time to verify my account of what had happened.

 

MONA responds to my enquiry about the moving glass

Emma from MONA replied that January is peak season (handy to know) and that a response might take longer than usual. However, she would definitely pass my email on to appropriate teams for follow-up.

Also, I was aware that along with MONA having to check every post they receive before publishing it, MONA Communications Team needed to verify the incident via camera surveillance too, to make sure that my posts were of substance.

 

You can find my first post dated 16th January 2018 to MONA owner David Walsh near the bottom of his “Journey” blog on the MONA blog site, along with  my follow-up post dated 25th January 2018. Or you can check out the copy below.

Friends and family have discussed a couple of theories as to why my glass glided across the table, but we’ve concluded that these aren’t solid enough to close the case!

So, if you have any theories to offer, please LET ME KNOW in the COMMENT BOX below the post!

I’ll let the following emails and blog correspondence with MONA paint the picture for you (pardon the art pun).

 

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I send a post to David Walsh’s MONA “Journey” blog about the moving glass at Faro Tapas Bar

– 16th January 2018 –

 

In David Walsh’s “Journey” post he writes that Pharos – the new section of the museum that Faro Tapas Bar belongs to – is a “distraction and a daydream”.

In response I wrote this post on David’s blog:

Hi David.

On 4th Jan. ’18, between 4.05pm and 4.40pm, Pharos did prove to be a distraction, a daydream, but on the contrary a bit MIND-BENDING for my husband and me in a way that you might not be aware of.

I emailed Mona on 5th Jan. at 3.22pm about the following unusual incident that we had experienced the day before in Faro Tapas Bar.

We were sitting at a table by the bar. My full glass of sparkling wine began moving by itself! It travelled slowly from left to right in front of me along a grey stretch of marble and stopped at a side plate.

When I returned my glass to its original position it began moving again.Image created by Rawpixel.com – Freepik.com 

 

I alerted my husband. (And moved the side plate out of the way.)

We watched the glass travel steadily for about 45cm. I picked it up 10cm from the edge of the table in case it kept going and fell off!

As I was returning the glass (again) to its original position I said “video it” to my husband, but when I placed the glass down, it didn’t move!

I asked the waitress whether this occurrence had been a MONA “trick”. She replied no and wiped the bottom of the glass and the table with her hand. Then the waitress confirmed that neither were wet.

The eerie occurrence puzzled the three of us…

 

My husband was adamant that the resin sealer on the marble surface had somehow facilitated the movement of the glass. Subsequently, our construction tradie relatives advised us that this explanation is implausible, even if the table tilted slightly.

Also, in my email to MONA on 5th Jan., I suggested that the camera surveillance footage be checked and that we would welcome any explanations. Emma replied that she would pass on our unusual observation to the appropriate teams for follow-up and to bear in mind that a response might take a little time because it’s peak season.

I’m looking forward to any feedback that MONA might have. As today is the twelfth day since the occurrence, I’m hoping that the surveillance video won’t be wiped before MONA has had a chance to check it out.

Thanks, David. Just wanted to let you know. We really enjoyed our visit!

 

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I follow up my post to MONA’s “Journey” blog

– 25th January 2018 –

Hi.

Just following up on my blog response to “Journey” dated 16th January ’18 about my glass of sparkling wine that moved 45cm by itself in the Faro Tapas Bar between 4.05 and 4.40pm Thursday 4th Jan. ’18.

Although it’s been three weeks since the occurrence and we haven’t received any reply from MONA (and my blog response hasn’t been posted), we’re still hoping that the team is looking into the incident via camera surveillance footage and will get back to us. It’d be really great to get any kind of feedback/reply.

 

BTW – After I responded on 16th, I noticed that the Journey blog contains an image of Faro Tapas Bar called Unseen Seen. (Ironic.) We were sitting at the table at the forefront of the photo when the unusual incident occurred.

Thanks for your time.

 

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I finally receive this email from [email protected]

– 1st February 2018 –

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I received this email from Emma of MONA regarding MONA Communication Team’s confirmation of the moving glass after watching the camera surveillance footage!

WHAT THE..?! I can’t believe that MONA won’t release the footage! Why don’t they pixelate the patrons’ faces!!! ?

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Unreconciled theories as to why the glass

travelled 45 cm by itself across the table

at Faro Tapas Bar

 

In conclusion, our construction industry folk unanimously agreed against Jim’s theory that the resin on the flat marble table had enabled the glass to move.

Also, the MONA wait staff member had studied the glass, confirming that neither the bottom of the glass nor the table were wet.

Our friend, P, declared that the glass moved due to vibrations of, for example, a nearby bar machine or some installation. However if that’s the case, why didn’t the cutlery or plates on the table move or even rattle slightly? Could un-sensed vibrations cause a full glass of sparkling wine to move slowly and steadily without a ripple 45 cm across a marble table?  

Naturally, my eyes were glued to that glass!

The wine didn’t sway or ripple whatsoever!

 

Want to know more about MONA? Check out my in depth travel review on Museum of Old and New Art here.

 

A medium at Hobart Psychic Expo picks up on moving glass at Faro Tapas Bar

On Sunday 7th January 2018, Jim and I decided to visit the Hobart Psychic Expo at Best Western Hotel for something different to do. I had wanted to visit a medium for fun in Daylesford a while ago, but we hadn’t gotten around to doing so.

Consequently, here we were at Best Western Hotel amongst spiritual healers, psychic mediums, crystals, spiritual knick-knacks, metaphysical charts, and an aura photo machine.

 

I asked Rebeccah, the medium, what she could tell me about a glass of sparkling wine. (I was wearing my poker face.)

Guess what she said! If you don’t want to guess, check out the post “WHAT THE..?! at Hobart Psychic Expo”.

Actually, more than one WHAT THE..?! happened there! And I’ll fill you in.

Please post below any plausible theories that can explain what currently remains unexplained!