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Kauffman Center Dining Experience New Fall Menu 2018

A table with three elegantly plated dishes featuring meat, vegetables, sauce, and garnishes, plus a small slate with nuts and a bowl of sauce. A glass of white wine is visible in the corner.

Dining Experience Introduces New Fall Menu and Custom Bar

Enjoy the luxury of a fully-stocked bar with your seasonal, three-course meal created by Kansas City’s “Chef of the Year”

A table with three elegantly plated dishes featuring meat, vegetables, sauce, and garnishes, plus a small slate with nuts and a bowl of sauce. A glass of white wine is visible in the corner.

The Dining Experience at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts launched its new fall menu with 10 new dishes on Sept. 5, accompanied by a newly installed, fully-stocked bar.

THE NEW BAR

The Dining Experience’s new bar includes 10 bar seats where guests can order specialty cocktails, wine, beer and spirits, as well as small plates from Executive Chef Laura Comer’s kitchen. The custom-built bar’s design mimics the Kauffman Center’s exterior, with all-thread tension cables paying homage to the steel cabling seen on the south-facing side of the building.

Within the remodeled bar area, Restaurant Manager Phil Carey offers 12 specialty cocktails, including featured fall additions such as Tedore’s Russian Roe Martini, Pimm’s Copo, Laura’s Lemonade and Papa George. Much like The Dining Experience’s food menu, the cocktails are made with fresh ingredients like basil, house-made ginger soda, fresh squeezed lemon, seasonal fruit and house-made whipped cream. Carey enjoys making many of the cocktails an experience for guests, whether the drinks are shaken tableside or served smoking.

Desserts and small plates may be ordered at the bar as well, all designed seasonally to pair with your drink.

THE FALL MENU

To accompany your drink, enjoy savory, rich, and expressive autumn flavors with the new fall menu by Kansas City’s “Chef of the Year” Laura Comer. (Read more about this prestigious award here).

The Dining Experience’s fall dishes feature seasonal vegetables, Missouri apples and pecans, Green Dirt Farms cheese, Circle B Ranch pork, and Hatfield Signature Beef. The impressive new menu has been featured in Feast magazine.

The Kauffman Center has also partnered with Saint Luke’s Health System to provide recommended heart-healthy options on each seasonal Dining Experience menu. Executive Chef Comer worked with a Saint Luke’s dietitian to create the Autumn Grains and the Skuna Bay Salmon dishes, both approved as heart-healthy options for guests.

Executive Chef Comer’s Dining Experience fall menu will run through the end of November in the Founders’ Lounge at the Kauffman Center. Guests are invited to choose one selection from each of the three courses provided for $37 per person.

The Dining Experience is available for all guests and visitors prior to most performances (excluding Sunday afternoons), though you do not have to be attending a performance to dine. Walk-in dining is welcome depending on availability, and reservations are encouraged. The Dining Experience also offers a small plates menu of lighter fare, a selection of seasonal craft cocktails and a diverse collection of wines and spirits. For a look at the entire menu, visit kauffmancenter.org/dining.

For reservations, call (816) 994-7222 or visit Open Table.

ABOUT EXECUTIVE CHEF LAURA COMER

Executive Chef Laura Comer, who was recently named Kansas City’s “Chef of the Year” by the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association, brings a wealth of fine dining history to her work at the Kauffman Center. Her background includes time with well-known local establishments including Bluestem, Justus Drugstore and Treat America. Comer is a Kansas City native and graduate of the University of Missouri- Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. She holds an A.O.S. in Culinary Arts and Le Cordon Bleu Diploma from The California School of Culinary Arts.

Photos by Anna Petrow and Jillian Shoptaw

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