Bon appetit! Bates Technical College launched a new student-run fine dining service this week, a permanent addition to the school’s Culinary Arts Program.

This fine dining service, held in the Cascade Room across from the cafeteria, is not just an eatery open to the community, but also provides restaurant experience for the future chefs learning their craft at Bates.

“Students working in the Cascade Room are second-year students nearing course completion,” said culinary arts instructor Roger Knapp. “Introducing the fine dining experience to our students will allow them to apply their skills in a restaurant environment. This is their chance to be creative and develop menus, apply theory learned throughout the curriculum, and fine-tune techniques so they can extend their placement opportunities in a broader range of fine restaurants and hotels. In addition to a variety of student benefits, the new fine dining service offers more lunch options to visitors and to those who work in downtown Tacoma.”

The dining service features an a la carte, made-to-order menu of items not offered in the college’s cafeteria. The Cascade Room offers patrons classic cuisine with a modern twist. Menu choices include starters such as stuffed artichoke; marinated shrimp; spring lettuce salad; tomato with fresh mozzarella and basil oil. Sample entrees include grilled sea scallops; stuffed lamb chop; wild salmon noisettes with ginger peach glaze; and sweet onion tart strip loin of beef with tomato horseradish emulsion. An assortment of four delectable desserts will be offered, along with a selection of beverages and a soup du jour. The dining room seats approximately 30 customers, and the general atmosphere is casual fine dining. The average price of a three-course meal is just $12.

The program will start with the current menu until students become familiar with the food and procedures, but will eventually be changed on a quarterly basis. In addition, there will be daily specials added to the menu. Children of all ages are welcome but there are no children’s menus available at this time. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible.

In keeping with the restaurant theme, reservations are recommended, and there is no limit to the number of guests per party. However, for the benefit of the students, they would like to keep the size of parties at six and under. Tipping is not encouraged, but any tips received will be deposited into a fund in the Bates Foundation to be used toward scholarships for culinary arts students. For customers that do not finish their meals and would like to take the remainder home, to-go containers will be available.

Bates Technical College in downtown Tacoma is located at 1101 S. Yakima Ave. The Cascade Room will be open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For more information, call (253) 680-7000 or visit www.bates.ctc.edu.