Luther Crest, a Lutheran Senior Services Life Plan Community in South Whitehall, has placed first in the dining innovation category for the 2024 Senior Housing News Architecture and Design Awards.

The awards recognize cutting-edge design, excellence, and innovation in senior living.

Luther Crest recently completed a $13 million investment in the community center that transformed the dining experience to a modern, multivenue establishment offering a wide range of dining options, elevating offerings for residents’ needs and preferences.

“The dining experience for our residents has been completely transformed,” Nikki Rohrbach, executive director at Luther Crest said. “These are truly state-of-the-art, which pave the way for our great chefs to create new and exciting dishes, reflecting our desire to offer the best.”

The housemade fare offerings have greatly grown as well.

Luther Crest’s expanded kitchens now boast an award-winning, dedicated pastry chef and new, state-of-the-art equipment – including blast freezers, Rationale Combi ovens (which can be converted into smoking cabinets) and immersion circulators (or sous vide machines) – making it possible to offer expanded menus across different cuisines and elevated dishes such as hickory-smoked, dry rubbed wings, fork-tender filet mignon, and applewood-smoked baby back ribs.

A mobile teaching kitchen enables chefs to provide live cooking classes to residents.

Special camera mounts allow classes to be live streamed on apartment televisions so residents can cook along at home.

The variety of dining venues helps create a “downtown” atmosphere right on campus, so residents can experience world-class cuisine in a modern, inviting setting without ever leaving Luther Crest.

They range from a casual bistro, an upscale dining space, a private dining room for personal parties, a pub, and a 24/7 market.

“Whether you want to host Thanksgiving in the Fullenbach Room, celebrate a special moment at Vine and Fig, share a beer at the Steel Valley Pub, dig into some pizza at the Chromium Grille, or grab a late-night snack at the Common Grounds Market – all of these new and renovated spaces have been intentionally designed to create moments of joy and fulfillment,” Rohrbach said. Residents agree.

“The food is really good,” resident Rev. Dr. Ann Baly said, who chairs the dining committee. “The cooks and the bakers are proud of what they can produce with the first-rate kitchen equipment. And happy cooks sure make for happy residents!”