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| Friday July 04, 2008 |
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| By Cheri Sicard The Pantlind Hotel opened in 1913, and by 1925 it was ranked "One of the Ten Finest Hotels in America." Fashioned after English Adams architecture by designers Warren & Wetmore, the hotel's special details includes one of the world's largest gold-leaf ceilings. The name changed when the Amway Corporation, now part of the Alticor company, acquired the Pantlind and meticulously restored it. The hotel reopened in 1981, attached to a new modern glass tower wing that provides lots of new lodging for downtown visitors.
Every one of the employees I spoke with, both in the kitchen and the dining room, had a focused goal of creating a flawless restaurant experience for the customers, but none more than Chef de Cuisine Christian Madsen. Madsen clearly states that his goal is to have each customer walk away from the 1913 Room saying "That was the best meal I had in my life." That's a tall order, but one he has managed to consistently fill. The 1913 Room became Michigan's only AAA 5 Diamond Award Winning restaurant in 2002 and they have managed to maintain that rating ever since (at least as of this writing in 2007). Grand Rapids Magazine has named the 1913 Room the "Restaurant of the Year" seven times in the past 10 years, and recently crowned it "Restaurant of the Decade."
A Michigan native who left for a while but returned to Grand Rapids to raise his family, Madsen says that with today's sophisticated shipping, there is no disadvantage whatsoever to running a world class restaurant in the Midwest. "It's important to establish good relationship with purveyors," the chef cautions. "For instance, we regularly get fish shipped in from all three coasts, but we also produce from local growers as much as possible - it's about getting the best ingredients possible from wherever you need to get them." The restaurant offers an a la carte menu, plus a nightly special. Appetizers range from $8.00 to $18.00 (for "a symphony of appetizers"). Entrées range from $20.00 to $40.00 (as of this writing in 2007). Most exciting is the five course chef's tasting menu with wine parings for $120.00 per person ($75.00 without wine), which allows you to experience a broader spectrum of Chef Madsen's talent. Of course the desserts are beautiful and decadent edible works of art, but it may be tempting to forgo them in favor of some selections from the cheese cart, well stocked with an eclectic variety of sometimes hard to find (at least in this country) cheeses. I passed on the chocolate and sugar and opted instead for the cheese plate and the vivid nostalgic memories of my times in Burgundy and the South of France that the pungent aromas and distinctive flavors invoked. In addition to the quality of the food and its artful preparation, your experience at the 1913 Room will be augmented by those small touches that set the 5 Diamond Award winning restaurant apart from the Four Diamond Award winners - excellent as those might be. There's a special not-on-the-menu amuse bouche to start to start things off, a fresh fruit sorbet intermezzo, and even special candies delivered after dessert. If you need a spectacularly over the top, special occasion dining experience, it would be hard to do better than the elegant 1913 Room. Recipes from the 1913 Room's Chef Christian Madsen
Practicalities
The 1913 Room has a business casual/jackets required dress code. The Amway Grand Hotel is located at 187 Monroe Ave. in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The hotel is in easy walking distance of the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Presidential Library, the convention center and downtown area entertainment venues and restaurants. While the 1913 Room is a 5 Diamond Restaurant the Amway Grand is a 4 Diamond Hotel. Likewise, the service was outstanding in every way. (The housekeeping staff is almost magical in the level of attentiveness, cause every time I'd leave my room, it was perfectly neat and straightened out upon return.) For more information about the Amway Grand Hotel, the 1913 Room and it's six other restaurants, bars and coffee bars call toll-free 1-800-253-3590 or 616-774-2000 or click to www.AmwayGrand.com. Phone the 1913 Room directly for information or reservations at 616-776-6459. The Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention and Visitors Bureau can help you plan any visits to the area. Call them toll free at 1-877-VISIT-GR or at 616-459-8387 or click to their website www.visitgrandrapids.com. Downtown Grand Rapids is any easy 20 minutes from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. The restaurant and entertainment district is in easy walking distance of downtown hotels like the Amway Grand and the JW Marriott. More on the Grand Rapids Area:
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GRAND
RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, USA - In their entire lives, some people will never experience
a meal like you get at the 1913 Room at the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Some people don't even realize that meals this exquisite, this elegant,
this technically perfect exist. But they do, and that's part of the magic of stepping
back in time to the restaurant that bears the name of the year it first opened.
The
Pantlind Hotel, along with its famous gilded lobby still remains in all its glory,
albeit now known as the Amway Grand. What also remains, much like is was when
it first opened, is the hotel's signature restaurant, the 1913 Room. Everything
about the place, from the ornate Louis XVI décor, to the impeccable (bordering
on doting) service, to the elaborate creative culinary creations of Chef Christian
Madsen --each more artfully presented than the last, reminds one of the famous
restaurants of yesteryear - like Delmonico's in its New York heyday of the Roosevelt
era. Everything, with the exception of the $65.00 a Swarovski crystal encrusted
bottle of "Bling" water was drenched in old world elegance. I suppose if someone
was silly enough to pay me $65.00 for a bottle of water, I'd be smart enough to
sell it to them, but it is one of the only things that breaks the illusion of
true vintage fine dining class, taste, and elegance. 
The
accolades are made all the more impressive that Madsen largely learned his art
while on the job, with limited formal training. He claims to have been an English
major "for about five minutes," before apprenticing and immersing himself in restaurant
work. Madsen describes his menu, which changes frequently, as "current and contemporary
cuisine with classic influences - really it's just good food."