2. Envelope-pushing ingredients
At Sharon Towers, a continuing care retirement community in Charlotte, N.C., Executive Chef Andrew Ward has changed offerings to keep up with diners’ increasing expectations for gourmet-level dining.
“I came from an all-restaurant background, so when I got here, my first thoughts were, ‘OK, we’re going to break out the kale and the quinoa and we’re going healthier.’ Right off the bat, I was told by my residents [that] we’re not some kind of trendy restaurant; this is not what we asked for,” Ward says.
Around the same time, Ward launched Sharon Towers’ first fine-dining restaurant, called Allison’s, to complement its buffet-style restaurant, Center Stage, and casual bistro. Service was offered two nights a week and was not particularly well-attended, Ward says. But a younger generation of residents began trickling in, looking for baked fish instead of fried, as well as that infamous kale. Four years later, Allison’s operates six days a week for lunch and dinner, and Ward hosts monthly seven-course chef’s tasting dinners that regularly sell out instantly.