Located in the heart of LBCC: the Santiam Restaurant not only offers gourmet foods at affordable prices, they also offer talented young culinary graduates to the community: students fluent in the language of food.
"The Santiam Restaurant is really one of the main focal points of our program," said Todd Ketterman, department chair for the culinary program at LBCC.
Located in the Calapooia Center building on campus, this french bistro-style restaurant is a hidden gem for the Benton county community.
For over 40 years the Santiam Restaurant has been a launching pad for students, "The Santiam Restaurant provides our students that real world experience, that connection of what it’s like to operate a restaurant, how to cook for a restaurant, how to deal with customers and just the daily operations of a fine dining restaurant," said Ketterman.
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| Seared scallops, frisée and pancetta salad |
Serving elegant dishes such as seared scallops with cilantro lime relish, and grilled Anderson ranch lamb rack with chimichurri, the average student wouldn't assume they could afford to eat here. Fortunately for students (and folks with good taste but slim wallets) the Santiam restaurant only aims to break even.
"All we're really trying to do is recoup enough to pay for the ingredients," said Josh Green, overseer of the restaurant, "if we were going to charge real world prices, this item would cost more like twenty bucks," Josh said, pointing to an item on the menu that cost less than $10.
The restaurant can afford to maintain low prices because students earning credit for their work make up nearly the entire staff.
The thirty plus students that work here are each enrolled in the schools culinary program. The first year students start as wait staff. The second year students get to join the excitement in the kitchen.
"The entire food preparation is done by second year students," said second year student, Ben Vanderschueree. There are about 25 first year students and 11 second year students, although, "the number of first years' changes drastically in the early parts of our program because it's a hard, difficult, stressful program, and some people aren't ready for that environment yet," said Vanderschueree. Vanderschueree is managing the waiting, reservations, and ambiance within the restaurant.
The menu is a special piece of the restaurant. Chef Josh Green prepares dishes that are constants on the menu, but there are new menu items every single week created by the second year students working in the kitchen. There's always a great deal of variety when it comes to Santiam Restaurants menu.
A patron of this restaurant could eat here every week, and never eat the same entre twice.
If you're looking for a swanky but affordable lunch, or a way to support the schools culinary program, the Santiam Restaurant has you covered. They also offer a 10% discount for students.
Unfortunetly not open for dinner, their hours are 9:30 - 11:00 a.m for coffee, espresso and pastries. Lunch is served from 11:00 - 12:15 p.m.
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