Windows on three sides face the suburban landscape, an oven-equipped classroom and the restaurant's kitchen. A bar and cashier's desk occupy the fourth wall. Swanky accouterments include white tablecloths, fresh flowers, no-nonsense stemware, wine racks and a handsome grill cart for tableside preparations. By design, dinner menus are as wide-ranging as a philosophy seminar. Five courses, each with three or four choices, offer overviews of what we'll eventually be seeing in clubs and restaurants staffed by AIA graduates.
Portions are modest.
Lunch is much less formal and sold a la carte. Dinner begins with a basket of assorted, first-rate rolls and a plate of decoratively piped sweet butter. Refills on both are provided without fuss. After that, what you get depends upon the night and the chef in charge. As might be expected, with chef-professors providing recipes as well as oversight, even relatively straightforward or routine preparations are textbook examples.