Dinner and DJ is a night-out format in which guests eat in a restaurant while a DJ plays, the volume rising as the plates are cleared until dinner turns into a party without anyone changing venue.
Paris gave the idea its most influential stage. Buddha-Bar opened in 1996 near the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, founded by Raymond Visan with his wife Tarja, with a seated Buddha around four metres tall watching over the dining room. Its resident sound designer and DJ Claude Challe helped shape the lounge style the venue became known for, and a resident DJ still plays every evening.
The music left the building too: the Buddha-Bar compilations, released on the George V Records label, have sold millions of copies and number close to a hundred volumes. Many people who never set foot in the restaurant have, in effect, had dinner with its soundtrack.