If you’ve been craving a fine dining experience, Cafe Laura is the place for you this semester.

Every fall, students enroll in HM 430: Advanced Food Production and Service Management Laboratory, which is part of the graduation requirements for hospitality management majors at Penn State. These students are tasked with planning and executing a theme dinner hosted at Cafe Laura in the Mateer Building.

Students are responsible for everything relating to the theme dinners, including (but definitely not limited to) planning menus, developing recipes, ordering ingredients, and managing personnel and finances.

Students split up into groups and create different theme dinners every semester. Each theme dinner occurs twice and requires reservations. This semester, they’ll host eight different themes for students and community members alike to enjoy.

Take a few staycations with “Pimento: An Elevated Southern Experience”, “When in Rome: That’s Amore”, and “A Peruvian Experience: A Trip to Lima”. Each of the menus for these features food that represent that culture.

If you’re in the mood for something a little less adventurous, check out “Greenhouse Harvest: A Taste of the Season” or “Cork: Napa Valley Meets Happy Valley”.

Unique themes this semester include “Acropolis: A Feast for the Gods”, “Dinner at Tiffany’s: A Soiree in the City”, and “A Tribute to Queen: Taste the Music”. These dinners’ menu items have fun names that incorporate puns and are sure to catch your eye.

Each theme dinner occurs twice throughout the fall semester. The schedule and menus for each dinner can be found here.

Because of the wide variety of food that is offered by each group of students, there is no flat fee for the dinners. Each dinner offers multiple choices for almost all courses, including dessert.

For theme dinners, Cafe Laura operates on a BYOB policy, as alcohol is not sold at the restaurant.

Theme dinners are available by reservation only. To check availability and place a reservation, visit Cafe Laura’s Online Reservation system.

To learn more about the School of Hospitality Management at Penn State and the other things they are involved in, head over to its site hosted within the Health and Human Development department.