Release Date: November 20, 2000

National Gallery of Art Opens Redesigned Cascade Café, Offering an Enhanced Dining Experience for Visitors

Washington, DC--The National Gallery of Art's remodeled Cascade Café, located within view of the Cascade waterfall on the concourse level, is now open. The largest of several Gallery restaurants, it features seven food stations, including an espresso and gelato bar, as well as an additional 150 seats to accommodate five hundred visitors. The Cascade Café is managed by Culinare International, which also manages the Gallery's Garden Café and Coffee Bar.

Guests can watch food being freshly prepared and cooked in "open kitchens" and can make selections from the Bakery, Sandwich Bar, Chef's Table, Pizza Oven, Soup and Salad Bar, and The Grille. Confections are freshly baked at the Bakery counter every day and pizzas are prepared in a wood-burning oven. The Espresso and Gelato Bar offers a colorful array of homemade gelati and sorbetti in eighteen flavors (the only full gelato production facility in the DC area), as well as specialty salads, paninis, fresh-baked desserts, and biscotti.

Hours for the Cascade Café are Monday-Saturday, 10:00-3:00, and Sunday, 11:00-4:00. The Espresso and Gelato Bar are Monday-Saturday, 10:00-4:30, and Sunday, 11:00-5:30.

Design
The new Cascade Café design is intended to successfully bridge the space between the Gallery's contemporary East Building and neoclassical West Building. The design fuses elements of I.M. Pei's original design with updated classic American diner features. Pei's use of stone serving surfaces, for example, has been updated with the use of American granite. His original stainless steel tray slides have been retained along with the original ceilings. Quilted stainless steel panels front the food service counters and the kitchen entrance.

Brushed and polished stainless steel is used throughout as banding and continues in the banding of the terrazzo floor. Marble chips and blue glass embedded in the terrazzo complement the Gallery's signature cobalt blue, which is used as an accent color and in the tiles of the wood-burning pizza oven. The Café's wheat-colored walls and columns feature reproductions of works of art from the Gallery's works of art that have food as their subject.

To accommodate a larger number of diners, and to avoid long lines the new café layout features distinct food service areas and beverage islands. There are thirty two heads of soda at four beverage islands and six cash registers in operation. Self-busing is made easier for diners by the installation of a state-of-the-art conveyor belt wide enough to carry fully laden trays. Wheelchair accessibility was carefully integrated into the design.

The Cascade Café redesign project team includes members of the staffs of the National Gallery of Art, Darrell Willson, Culinare International, and Carrell Poole and Yost Architecture of Dallas.

Other Gallery Cafés and Coffee Bar
In addition to the newly remodeled Cascade Café, the National Gallery of Art offers three other dining experiences for visitors:

Garden Café
West Building, ground floor
Monday-Saturday, 11:30-3:00, Sunday, 12:00-6:30

The Garden Café offers a serene spot in a classical architectural setting in which to enjoy lunch. The menu includes entrées related to current exhibitions as well as traditional American fare. The Café remains open until 6:30 on Sundays with special entrées for concertgoers. For individual reservations, please call Culinaire at (202) 216-2494. For group reservations for 10 or more, please call the office of Special Events (202) 842-6043.

Coffee Bar
East Building, upper level
Monday-Saturday, 11:00-4:00 and Sunday, 12:00-5:00

Take a break during your tour and enjoy refreshments while overlooking the Mall and the Calder mobile. Located on the upper level of the East Building, this bright space offers a relaxing atmosphere. Visitors can enjoy a tearoom menu for the duration of the exhibition Art Nouveau, 1890-1914, on view through 28 January.

Pavilion Café
Sculpture Garden
Monday-Saturday, 10:00-9:00, Sunday, 11:00-7:00

The new Pavilion Café, scheduled to open on 3 November, will serve specialty pizzas, sandwiches, salads, desserts, fresh-baked goods, coffee, hot chocolate, and beer and wine. There is a special menu for children. Refreshments and light fare are also available.

Cascade Café Menu Highlight

Bakery:
Freshly baked breakfast pastries, pies, cakes and cookies

Espresso and Gelato Bar:
Starbucks coffee, cappuccino, latte, espresso, brownies, blondies and gourmet cookies
Gallery-made gelati and sorbetti, eighteen flavors

Chef's Table:

Appetizers
Chilled poached Alaskan salmon with cucumber dill sauce
Chilled jumbo shrimp with gazpacho cocktail sauce
Soup
Seasonal soup
Chef's daily soup selection

Entrées
Rotisserie chicken served with mushroom jus
Chef's rotisserie special (beef, pork, lamb, etc., served with complementing sauce or jus)

Accompaniments
Cauliflower with browned butter and sautéed capers
Sautéed green beans with lemon zest
Sauté of fall vegetables

The Grille:

Hamburgers
Cheeseburgers
Chicken Tenders
Shoestring fries

Pizza:
8" personal pizzette from our wood-burning oven
Margherita, chef's own pizza sauce, sliced roma tomato, fresh basil, and shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni and mushroom, chef's own pizza sauce, sautéed mushrooms, sliced pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella cheese

6" square Focaccia
Caramelized sweet onion, and roasted garlic
Four Cheese

Sandwich Bar:
Pretzel sandwich, shaved prosciutto, creamy Harvarti cheese, arugula, sliced tomato, and sun-dried tomato spread on pretzel roll
Club, Italian flat bread, sliced smoked turkey breast, apple-wood bacon, Swiss cheese, leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, and whole grain Dijon mustard
California panini, sausalito chicken breast, sliced tomato, fresh avocado, jalapeno cheese, and cilantro ranch spread on ciabatta roll

Soup and Salad Bar:
Seasonal soup and Chef's daily soup selection
Caesar salad (also offered with strips of rotisserie chicken) and Greek salad
Farfalle and artichoke salad, tossed with baby spinach, kalamata olives, roasted red bell peppers, and light pesto vinaigrette
Mandarin vegetable chopped salad, a colorful array of crunchy oriental vegetables, and rice noodles tossed with sesame vinaigrette
Southwestern-style salad, roasted corn, black bean, jicama, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, red chilies, cilantro, red onion tossed with Santa Fe spices and lemon juice