The Restaurant at CIA Copia now open

Culinary center’s restaurant offers cornucopia of options|

At the grand opening of the Culinary Institute of America at Copia last weekend, guests lined up to try the new Restaurant at CIA Copia.

At lunch, servers brought beverage carts and offered wine by the glass ($11 to $30) or bottle ($48 to $130). Christophe Gerard now serves as executive chef of this well-conducted orchestra. The pan-seared salmon ($17), reheated in Hestan ovens, and the Copia Cheeseburger ($13) with piled-high fries, are the most popular items on the lunch menu. Customers can add either bacon or an egg to the burger for $3.

Other lunch offerings include chestnut agnolotti ($15), lamb sirloin ($19), and a roasted half chicken with celery root purée and sunchokes ($21).

There's a casual full bar as one enters the restaurant area. Non-alcoholic beverages are available, too, such as tamarind limeade, a pom-sicle, East Imperial sodas, orange pekoe iced tea, fresh lemonade and limeade, Mexican Coke, Diet Coke, River City Ginger Beer and Sioux City Sarsaparilla. Craft beers are on offer, as well.

Dinner brings a whole new experience where servers bring a cart to your table displaying tempting small plates ranging from Rancho Gordo white bean purée on flatbread and compressed beets with Point Reyes Blue Cheese, brûléed Chelsea Gem oysters, pork belly confit, hanger steak tartine, salad, beet cured salmon, foie gras mousse, fire roasted cauliflower, chestnut and celery root soup, duck fat potatoes, and wild mushroom risotto ($8 to $20).

You can also order a whole roasted chicken ($45), 34-ounce Rib Eye steak ($95), a roasted trout $24), and pan-seared rack of lamb ($35).

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