The Class Act Restaurant



Breakfast time at the Class Act. 
Each meal features a different linen theme,
such as the sunny yellow breakfast linens.

 Yesterday we wrote about our stay at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center.   That post noted that among other features, the Hotel has a gourmet restaurant.   That restaurant is the Class Act, and it lives up to its name.

As with everything else at The Hotel, the Class Act is a real-world, real-time educational experience.  The servers, cooks and other staff are students, overseen by instructors.  The restaurant features seasonal menus, uses local and Iowa products whenever possible and features exquisite glass artworks - including a chandelier - made by Kirkwood students and faculty. 

One of the featured tables, complete with
a custom chandelier made by one of
the Kirkwood art instructors.

We ate two meals at the Class Act, Friday dinner and Saturday breakfast.   On each occasion, the food was perfectly cooked, artfully presented and just plain delicious.   The service was excellent, and we were very pleased that our morning server was able to take us on a tour of the kitchen and arrange for a tour of the classrooms.

For dinner on Friday, we both had mushroom and potato soup.  The soup featured pureed Yukon gold potatoes, mushrooms, cream and bacon, plus sauteed mushrooms.   It had an exquisite flavor, due in part to the mix of various mushroom varieties, including shitake and oyster.   It was the best mushroom soup I've ever had.

For the main course, Juli had a half plate of gnocchi served with brown butter, snow peas, asparagus, arugula and shaved Parmesan.  I had scallops served atop a green bean and asparagus almondine and topped with a roasted tomato and cream sauce and heirloom tomato salsa.  We both sampled from each other's plate, and both of us found both dishes to be excellent in every way.   The gnocchi were tender, the vegetables perfectly tender-crisp and the scallops perfectly cooked.

Although the soup and main course was hearty enough a meal to be satisfying, we couldn't pass up dessert.  Juli got coconut mango frozen entremet made of a coconut-lime dacquoise, mango orange sorbet and chocolate rum cremeaux.   I got the triple berry crisp, served with a smalls serving of vanilla ice cream.   Juli's featured a more delicate mix of flavors, while my crisp was both more basic and more bold, and full of whole strawberries and blueberries and fresh raspberry sauce. 

For breakfast, Juli had an omelet with ham, tomato, mushrooms and cheddar, while I had buttermilk pancakes served with a blueberry and strawberry compote and maple syrup.  Once again, both breakfasts were perfectly cooked.  The pancakes were easily the best I've ever had at a restaurant.  Juli's omelet came with a serving of delightfully-seasoned fried potatoes and toasted bread made by the restaurant's baking students. 

Price wise, the Class Act is very reasonable, especially given the quality of the food.  If someone wants a mound of food for a low price, they're better off going to a buffet place, but if you would like to have a gourmet dinner or an excellent breakfast, you aren't going to find any better than the Class Act.  We've certainly paid as much or more for meals vastly less satisfying than what we got at the Class Act.  We recommend it without reservation, and will definitely be dining there again next time we're in Cedar Rapids.

You can see the Class Act's hours and other information here.  The link also includes links to the current menu.   As noted above, the restaurant features a seasonal menu.  Our visit came near the end of the summer menu; once classes start for the fall, the restaurant will feature a different menu, and most or all of the dinner selections will change.   We look forward to choosing from a new selection of dishes next time we visit.

The Hotel at Kirkwood Center

As I mentioned in our last post, Juli and I were on the road part of the weekend.  We went to Cedar Rapids to visit her son, who will be a senior at Coe College this year.   Since he is a college kid, with a typically small college-kid apartment and a roommate, we couldn't stay with him, so we looked around for a good place to stay overnight.  

I should note that our previous hotel stays in Cedar Rapids had been pretty much unpleasant.   The first time we went there, we got an alleged nonsmoking room that smelled so strongly of smoke one might suspect it had been an ashtray in a previous life.  We had been going cheap that time, though, so the next time around we stayed at Cedar Rapids' downtown Five Seasons Center hotel.  Unfortunately, a train station is located right behind the Five Seasons, so we were awakened night and day by the sounds of trains and train whistles. 

While doing some research online, Juli came upon the Hotel at Kirkwood Center.   We were both pleased by the result of her research, because we had a fantastic stay.

The Hotel at Kirkwood Center is an upscale boutique hotel, and it also serves as a teaching facility for Kirkwood's Hospitality Arts program.  It opened just over a year ago.  Eco-friendly and posh, the Hotel boasts a one-to-one service employee to staff ratio.  It is, quite frankly, the best hotel either of us has ever stayed at. 

The Hotel is lavishly decorated with marble, attractive carpets and a lot of art, including lots of hand-blown glass.  All of the art was created by Kirkwood college and faculty members and local artists.  The spacious rooms include king or double queen beds, custom furniture, 32" wall-mounted flat-screen TVs, large marble bathrooms including granite counter tops and even a Kurig coffee maker.  Ameneties and services include free parking and shuttle service, same-day dry cleaning, free wi-fi, high-quality complimentary toiletries, room service, a bar and a full-service gourmet restaurant.  We found the rooms to be incredibly comfortable and quiet, with virtually no noise from the hallways and no noise whatsoever from other rooms.   We didn't even hear any noise from surrounding guests using the showers or toilets, which was quite welcome.

The base rates for a stay at the Hotel at Kirkwood Center aren't cheap.  Standard rooms go for around $200 a night.  Deluxe rooms and executive and presidential suites are progressively more expensive, with a presidential suite costing about $400 a night.   However, if one does a little homework and plans ahead, you can get a standard room for a lot less.  Expedia dropped cost of our standard room to less than $100.  That's quite good for a hotel in Cedar Rapids, especially on a weekend.  As far as we're concerned, the comfort and the friendly, courteous service made it a bargain.

The living area of one of the Presidential suites.

Now, you might ask why we are writing about this hotel on our food blog.   Two reasons, really.  First, we were really impressed and pleased with our stay at the Hotel, and we wanted to put out the word about this wonderful facility.  Second, we did mention the gourmet restaurant and that the Hotel is a teaching facility for Kirkwood's Hospitality Arts programs.  That includes their Baking and Culinary Arts programs.  We'll write about the restaurant and the academic programs in upcoming posts.