RA goes prehistoric to design cafe for Natural History museum

Nation's Restaurant News, July 15, 2002

WASHINGTON -- The newest restaurant at the National Museum of Natural History here has embraced its theme by adopting an ancient design motif.

The 60-seat Fossil Cafe, opened by Restaurant Associates last month, has an intimate link to the museum. According to Larry Ponzi, general manager for RA at the museum, the cafe's tables and walls double as educational tools. The tables, for instance, have actual fossils and informational nuggets under glass so that diners can read and learn while they eat.

RA worked closely with the museum's curators to create the Fossil Cafe. The "exhibits" for the restaurant, which cost $900,000 to build, include a 30-foot mural depicting scenes of life from the Cretaceous through the Pleistocene eras. The shadowbox-style tabletops include such exhibits as "Fossil Flowers: A Rare Treat" and "Who, Besides Us, Eats Plants?"

"Fossil Cafe broadens the conventional boundaries of the museum's exhibits by enabling visitors to examine real fossils in an unusual setting," said Scott Wing, curator in the institution's Department of Paleobiology. "When visitors stop at the cafe, they can continue to learn while they eat and drink. I don't know of any place like this in the world."

The cafe offers a menu of sandwiches, salads, desserts and beverages. Ponzi explained that because of the cafe's proximity to the exhibits, no actual cooking can be done at the restaurant.

"The only hot items we can do here are the specialty coffees and espressos," he said.

Ponzi also oversees the museum's Atrium Cafe, which offers a full line of hot and cold foods. The Atrium Cafe itself was renovated two years ago.

"On a daily basis we're doing exactly what we want to do," he added. "We are steadily busy throughout the day, 250 to 300 people a day. It is actually more popular than the Atrium Cafe in the late afternoon."

Restaurant Associates' Fossil Cafe at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., offers a menu of sandwiches, salads, desserts and beverages.

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