Seasons 52 may be a casual dining restaurant, but it's a lot more sophisticated than
you might expect. Here are some little known truths about the chain that lets
seasons decide its menu. Trust us, you'll want to plan a trip there very soon.
Fair warning: Seasons 52 may not have your favorite entrée available all year
round. But that's not such a bad thing. The wild Alaskan salmon, for example,
is only available between late spring and late summer, and that's because that's the
only window during which it's sustainably caught from Alaska's Copper River. For the
restaurant to serve it in any other season would mean compromising on its freshness.
"We change with the seasons."
The use of fresh ingredients is Seasons 52's number one priority. The idea behind
this policy is that fresh veggies and seafood harvested at the right time
ensure great taste, even without flavor enhancers like fats and sauces.
The menu undergoes large changes every season, while mild alterations are made on a week-to-week
basis based on what's fresh. Ergo, you can say that the chain has 52 menus a year,
hence the name. For a sense of what's available at different times, the summer menu features
ingredients such as cherries and fresh figs, the fall menu includes pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, and
mushrooms, and the winter menu features Florida stone crabs and Portuguese kale and chorizo soup.
The Darden Restaurants group owned around 1,200 restaurants before it conceptualized
the casually sophisticated Seasons 52 in 2003. The chain was born after Darden sensed a trend
in which more and more people were being conscious about consuming fresh ingredients
and taking a growing interest in food that was grilled instead of fried. To cater to this demand,
Darden conceived a chain that would offer low-calorie meals made with seasonal produce,
featuring a sophisticated atmosphere complete with an impressive list of wines.
The first Seasons 52 opened at 7700 Sand Lake Road in Orlando,
part of Restaurant Row, which features the best of the city's eateries.
It drew in customers who wanted a slightly more elegant experience than what they were used to.
After two years, the sales at the eatery were ahead of its projections, but there was still
a lot of apprehension about whether or not it would ultimately be successful,
as it was nothing like Darden had attempted before. But the company pressed forward,
as the second Seasons 52 was launched in a mall at Fort Lauderdale, and the third arrived in
Altamonte Springs near the Altamonte Mall to target the middle-income population.
It's hard to miss the big wall of shimmery wine bottles at a Seasons 52 location.
The sheer size of it conveys that the chain takes its wine very seriously,
as they offer over 52 wines by the glass.
"The '52' comes from reference to our 52 wines that we offer by the glass."
The list is curated by Brian Phillips, Director of Wine Strategy at Darden,
who is on a constant lookout for new wines. In the course of his pursuit, he's tasted 500 different
wines in Napa Valley alone. We have to admit that we're a little jealous that that's somebody's job.
Thanks to all of Philips' travels, Seasons 52 has a curious "Drink them before they're famous" menu.
We have to say that we approve of that branding, because who could resist the opportunity to
taste a soon-to-be-famous wine while it's still affordable? Some of the wines that
have made it onto this list include ones from the Mendoza region of Argentina and the Jansz
Tasmanian Sparkling Rosé. If you're craving these wines outside the walls of Seasons 52,
you're unfortunately out of luck, as you probably can't get them at your local grocery store.
Considering all this, it's hardly surprising that 40 separate Seasons
52 restaurants have been given the Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator.
The wine at Seasons 52 is also generously used in the food.
Their wood-grilled filet mignon is doused in red wine, the short ribs are cooked with wine,
and wine is also the main ingredient in the Artisan cheese fondue appetizer. Bottoms up!
At Seasons 52, there's no complimentary bread, no French fries, and no butter.
It might seem like a punishment to dine without any fried items,
but the chain has nevertheless been able to flourish without a fryer. Instead of frying,
the menu items tend to be roasted, like mesquite-roasted pork tenderloin, or grilled,
as is the case with the cedar plank salmon. There's also no traditional pizza at Seasons 52.
Instead, they serve a variety of flatbreads topped with veggies and healthy proteins.
Every single dish on the menu, whether it's mac 'n cheese, truffled risotto, or steak salad,
is less than 595 calories. In fact, when Chef Clifford Pleau and his colleague Toni Robertson
created the menu for Seasons 52 in 2003, they collaborated with nutritionist Pamela Smith.
The idea was to conceptualize dishes that brought out the freshness of all the ingredients and made
for a nutritionally balanced diet. To achieve this, they decided to utilize cooking methods
that are more natural, like cooking over an open fire oak or mesquite grill or
roasting on a stone hearth oven. The result was a light menu featuring the likes of
grilled jumbo sea scallops, black mussels in an orange ginger broth, and grilled filet mignon.
"At Seasons 52, we specialize in oak-fired grilling and brick oven roasting,
to bring out all the natural flavors of food."
Seasons 52 was envisioned as a place where you could sip wine and enjoy live music.
With that in mind, in the past, some locations have featured a piano bar.
In 2014, CBS Philly even ranked Seasons 52 among the top five piano bars in Philadelphia. The
restaurant even used to organize month-long music festivals featuring veteran musicians.
The King of Prussia, Pennsylvania location, for example, featured live performances by
a variety of musicians. Meanwhile, the Seasons 52 in South Coast Plaza, California featured artists
such as Nicholas Cole, who was one of the top 30 contestants in Season 4 of American Idol.
Piano bars are alas not a staple within Seasons 52's walls anymore, which has disappointed
plenty of customers writing reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor. The Florida Seasons 52 locations at
Coral Gables, Jacksonville, and Altamonte Springs and the one in Plano, Texas are among those that
no longer have a piano bar. Spencer Bates is one of the professional musicians who've played at
Seasons 52 restaurants in the North Bethesda and Tysons Center locations in Maryland. In 2016,
he confirmed on his official website the sad news that the company was re-branding
and wouldn't have piano bars in the locations that he used to perform at.
In Seasons 52's pursuit to use the freshest produce in their dishes,
they went ahead and created an entire wall of edible herbs,
including Asian jasmine, rosemary, mondo grass, lemon button ferns, and mint. The 112-square-foot
living wall with 125 types of herbs can be found at the Seasons 52 in Los Angeles,
which was the chain's 23rd location. It was envisioned by Seasons 52 founding chef Clifford
Pleau and created by Jim Mumford, a certified landscape and green roof professional. He's also
the founder of GreenScaped Buildings, a company that specializes in living walls and green roofs.
The wall's setup included a glass-enclosed environment with the necessary cooling system,
temperature control, lighting, and water filtration set in place for the herbs to grow.
It was built right next to the chef's table,
making it convenient for the chefs to pluck an herb or two to add to the drinks and dishes.
The produce vendor for Seasons 52, the chef, the produce supplier,
and the GreenScaped Building's maintenance team all worked together to decide what herbs
would be grown in the garden and what kind of maintenance was required for their sustenance.
At Seasons 52, shot glasses have a different purpose than you might be used to in other
restaurants, as they feature what the restaurant calls "mini indulgences."
These dessert treats include the likes of Belgian Chocolate S'more,
Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cannoli, Pecan Pie, Key Lime Pie, and others,
all of which are served in shot glasses. Chef Clifford Pleau wanted to create desserts that
were light on calories but that at the same time featured high-quality ingredients. Some
suggested that the portions should be smaller, and the end result was a pie-filled shot glass.
In order to decide what flavors to use, Pleau went to a nearby grocery store and browsed through the
bakery and dessert sections to find out which were the most in demand. When it came to settle
on a way to present the desserts, he was inspired by a chandelier in a hotel lobby. In the same way
that the chandeliers held the candles, he created a tower with holders that held 18 mini desserts.
Yellowfin tuna is sold worldwide, but alas, it's often overexploited.
So much so that organizations like the World Wildlife Fund have been working toward recovering
the depleted tuna stock and raising awareness about sustainably-caught tuna. That includes
the one in the Ahi Tuna Tartare that's served at Seasons 52. The chain's yellowfin tuna is sourced
through the Fishing and Living Program, which was launched by Anova Food to promote sustainable
fisheries and support fishing communities. The fish are caught in the Coral Triangle in
the Western Pacific Ocean using a sustainable fishing practice known as the handline method.
Using this ancient technique, the fishermen manually catch one fish
at a time using a line that's fitted with a hook and a bait in the end. This way,
only the fish that is required is caught, and the rest of the marine life remains unaffected. This
is in stark contrast to the industrial fishing method that uses large trawls to catch fish,
and in the process tends to trap other creatures like sea turtles and dolphins.
Seasons 52 features plenty of indoor plants inside its restaurants. For example,
the Altamonte Springs, Florida location has a tall tree in the midst of the dining area.
There are also vases atop the bar counter near the entrance and in front of the open
kitchen. This greenery provides an outdoorsy feel, which is aligned with the type of
architecture that renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright practiced. Wright was known for
designing prairie-style dwellings, a technique of designing that takes into account the surrounding
environment. And this prairie-style architecture is the inspiration behind
the architecture of Seasons 52 restaurants that sport earthy colors and stone accents.
Inspired by Wright's organic architecture, the restaurant interiors feature tall living plants,
as well as massive wine displays. In some locations, such as Buford, Georgia, they form the
center wall. Meanwhile in Garden City, New York, the wine bottles are stored in custom-made wine
cellars. Furthermore, some restaurants use locally sourced natural wood for the interior design.
If you're vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-sensitive,
you're probably used to poring over restaurant menus to weed out everything that you can't eat.
The scanty options that you're often left with probably make you wonder why you choose to ever
dine out at all. There are so many chains that are unfortunately seriously lacking
in vegetarian and vegan options. And that's pretty shocking, considering the increased
interest levels in veganism around the world. As reported by The Economist, the number of people
searching for "veganism'"on Google in America has doubled between 2015 and 2019. There's also
the new trend of Vegan January or Veganuary, in which people go vegan for an entire month.
Overall, there's a clear increase in the number of people opting for vegan diets,
as well as gluten-free and lactose-free options. Many restaurants are only just
now acknowledging this fact and expanding their menus to accommodate these other diets.
But Seasons 52 has been ready for a while, as they have separate printed menus for vegan,
vegetarian, gluten-free, and lactose-free food items. The lactose-free menu has at
times included flatbreads without cheese toppings, tuna and avocado sushi rolls,
and sesame grilled salmon salads without the customary lemongrass mayonnaise topping.
Clearly, Seasons 52 is happy to please all sorts of personal preferences and palates.
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