"Edward Hopper" Exhibition Inspires Offerings in National Gallery of Art Restaurants through January 21, 2008

American artisanal cheeses with a selection of breads including farmhouse, Boston brown, and rolls. Available on the luncheon buffet in the National Gallery of Art Garden Café, located in the West Building.
Photo by Rob Shelley © by 2007 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Washington, DC—Inspired by the Edward Hopper exhibition, three of the National Gallery of Art restaurants—the Garden Café, Terrace Café, and Cascade Café—are offering special menus while the show is on view through January 21, 2008. In an effort to create a unique dining experience for every dining style, each restaurant is presenting a different twist on the same theme.

The Garden Café
West Building, Ground Floor
Monday–Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Sunday: 12 noon to 4:00 p.m.

Edward Hopper spent almost every summer of his artistic career in New England and painted many views of sailing, majestic Maine lighthouses, and historic architecture of Gloucester and Cape Cod. In celebration of the Edward Hopper exhibition and Hopper’s New England roots, the Garden Café is offering a New England–style buffet and an à la carte menu intended to evoke images of coastal scenes and sailboats in the minds of visitors as they dine in the verdant setting of the Garden Café.

Buffet selections include wild mushroom quiche, smoked salmon, roasted heirloom squash with fried sage leaves, Hudson Valley foie gras flan, Berkshire sausage stew, roasted apples, and Boston brown bread. The à la carte menu offers lobster bisque garnished with sherry crème fraiche, chives and lobster medallions; iceberg wedge with artisanal blue cheese and applewood smoked bacon with pickled red onions; New England seafood roll with crab, lobster, and shrimp in a spiced mayonnaise with crispy onions; Cabernet braised short ribs served in a puff pastry with whipped potatoes and sautéed vegetables. Among the dessert offerings are pumpkin cheesecake with a hazelnut tuile served with caramel sauce, chocolate bread pudding with caramelized bananas served with crème anglaise, and pear and walnut galette with maple pastry cream.

The Terrace Café
Upper Level, East Building
Through January 21, 2008
Saturdays and Sundays: 12 noon to 2:30 p.m.

The Terrace Café overlooks the monumental mobile by Alexander Calder and the entrance to Edward Hopper. The Café is offering prepackaged light fare from cases reminiscent of the automat eateries popular in New York from 1910 to the 1960s. Such restaurants were the subject of one of Hopper’s most iconic paintings—Automat (1927)—which is on view in the exhibition. Menu highlights include Cobb salad, Chinese chop salad, specialty sandwiches made with farmhouse bread including "homemade" meatloaf, and assorted deep-dish and cream pies. Guests may select from a full beverage service that includes soft drinks in "classic bottles" and hot beverages in diner-style coffee mugs. Background music from the era will also help set the mood.

The Cascade Café
Concourse, East Building
Monday through Saturday: 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Cascade Café, with a view of the cascade fountain, features classic daily "Blue Plate Specials and diner-style coffee mugs popular in the 1950s. The menu, which changes daily, features meatloaf, pork chops, chicken potpie, Yankee pot roast, turkey à la king, baked stuffed tilapia, and chop suey. Desserts include deep-dish apple pie, Boston cream pie, whoopee pie, and banana cream pie. The full beverage service offers sodas in "classic" bottles and freshly squeezed lemonade.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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