Meadow Lakes Living

The New Meadow Lakes Dining Service

The Ides of March ushered in a welcome event at Meadow Lakes—the institution of a new food service. The long-awaited dining program offers made-to-order entrees, salads, soups, and desserts. The ingredients are fresh, not frozen, and each dish is cooked to order. It would be difficult to find someone who is not delighted with the tempting offerings on the new menu. Steak, roast chicken or turkey, flounder, and salmon are available daily. Changing each day are three entrées: one a salad and two hot meals. In summer there are main course salads and a vegetarian entree is always available.  Also available at all times are sandwiches and salads served with French fries or potato chips. Mashed potatoes are always available with additional “sides.” A soup and salad starter complete each meal.

The dining room is open from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. On Sunday the schedule changes and residents are treated to a sumptuous brunch buffet that includes a carving station, omelet station, salads, soups, and hot dishes from noon until 2:00 p.m.  At 3:00 o’clock, a dinner menu becomes available.  This menu is welcomed by those who do not want a heavy meal at noon. The dining room closes at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays.

Salad bar at the Sunday buffet

At right are  chafing dishes with delicious entrees, vegetables, chicken, pork, and seafood at the Sunday buffet.

Fruit Festivals 

Each season ushers in new fruits to be enjoyed and Catering Manager, Alex Vincent, delights us with a strawberry, a blueberry and a peach festival, in each of the summer months.

Here are pictures taken at the July blueberry celebration. 

Michelle serves with a smile. 

Continental Breakfast

Breakfast is served daily from 8 until 10:00 a.m.  Below three residents eat and chat beneath art work just hung in the dining room.

  The Lakeside Cafe

Lunch is served daily in the Lakeside Café where emphasis is on informal dining or take out with the same foods being offered as are on the main dining room menu.  The Continental Breakfast is available in the Cafe, as well. The Café is open from 12:00 till 7:00 p.m. every day but Sunday.

Catering Manaer Alex Vincent chats with residents at lunch in the Cafe

Residents enjoy lunch in the sunny cafe

Managed as an independent dining service at Meadow Lakes by the Administration, the new program has much to offer. Not only is the variety great but special requests, fruit, for example, and dietary requirements are accommodated as well. A registered dietician assists residents who need help to get foods recommended by their physicians. For residents confined to their homes, tray service includes the same meals that are available in the dining room and orders are accepted from either “side” of the menu—that is, from a daily selection or the standard selections.

One cannot forget to mention the desserts. Diners may make a selection from an extensive list of desserts or request fruit or ice cream. Some of the favorites are freshly made pies, apple and blueberry, éclairs, and sugar–free cakes. With any of these, one might order cappuccino, espresso, a pot of tea or regular or decaffeinated Colombian coffee. Sodas, juice, milk, and, occasionally wine, also complement the meals. There is something for everyone!

A host and a student server display the dessert cart

Any description of our food service would be incomplete without mention of the incredible wait staff who serve us so effectively. The young people who work in our dining room usually come to us from Hightstown High School. Many of them continue to work at Meadow Lakes through the years and qualify for tuition as they go off to colleges across the country. Residents sponsor an Education Award Fund for which these part-time employees can qualify after they have worked here for a year. Visitors to the dining room will notice them immediately for they, along with the menu, have been transformed. That is to say, they have new uniforms, rust and black that look sharp – some say they are Princeton colors – and showcase their fine training. Under our new Dining Services Manager, Bobo Zulauf, the staff receive training in how to serve properly and elegantly.

Residents are delighted that Mr. Alex Vincent, our catering manager, continues at Meadow Lakes. Mr. Vincent plans and carries out all of our special events, cocktail parties, and fruit festivals. In summer he buys fresh corn for our enjoyment and sponsors a farmer’s market of fresh vegetables for residents to purchase. Everyone’s favorite, Mr. Vincent visits each table at dinner and chats with us, he takes an interest in the decorum of the wait staff, and in every way dedicates himself to enhancing life and dining at Meadow Lakes.

Featured in the photo above are Sal and Mr. Vincent with Executive Chef Amy Panetta in the Meadow Lakes Dining Room.  Amy was trained as a chef at the New York Restaurant School in Manhattan and has worked in this capacity for 15 years.   She has come to us from the kitchen at NYY Steak an upscale steak house located inside Gate 6 at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, NY.  Amy says the Meadow Lakes style of dining is quite different from restaurant dining--a new experience that she is enjoying.  We are enjoying her delicious meals as well.

 A summer special is the Farmer's Market hosted by Catering Manager Alex Vincent.  Mr. Vincent shops for the produce and offers it to us weekly.  The picture below does not show the corn-on-the-cob and watermelon available in August.  At the door are eager shoppers waiting to come in.

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