New senior-living community offers seasonal dishes, poolside dining and more

Sonrisa Senior Living opened its doors last summer in Roseville, Calif. Led by Executive Chef Byron Green, Sonrisa’s foodservice team aims to offer residents a wide variety of dining options built around seasonal, local ingredients.

Here’s a peek at the community’s current dining amenities and its future plans.

Farm-fresh dining

Sonrisa’s main dining room offers what Green describes as “California fresh” fare. Each day, residents can select from a rotating list of specials that includes pot roast, mahi mahi and prime rib. Green also likes to seek out lesser-known ingredients, such as purple forbidden rice.

“I try to be off the mainstream,” he says. “You know, I really don't like to do the same old, same old.”

Photo courtesy of Sonrisa Senior Living

While Sonrisa currently sources products from local farmers, hyper-local fare will be on the menu in the near future. Just outside the dining room’s kitchen is a garden with six raised plots that will be used to grow a variety of produce in the coming months, and a hydroponic garden to grow microgreens will be arriving soon.

The dining room also includes an display kitchen that, along with keeping residents engaged, helps the dining team with meal timing.

“We can do impeccable timing,” says Green. “We see you and we watch you eat, so we know you just got the soup, so we're not gonna fire your entree yet.”

Related:Penn Medicine’s new pavilion features a variety of food options

A grab-and-go bistro

Next to the dining room, the bistro offers breakfast and lunch as well as poolside dining.

In the future, it will be home to Sonrisa’s grab-and-go program, which will offer breakfast sandwiches, bowls, salads and more. Green is also looking at purchasing a big screen TV to turn the space into a sports bar in the evenings.

Photo courtesy of Sonrisa Senior Living

Two rotisserie barbecues are located just outside the bistro, near the pool. Green plans to use them for live cooking demos throughout the year, and he and his team have already hosted a Labor Day BBQ party for residents.

Getting creative with sake

A slightly more upscale bar and lounge is also located in the bistro. Sonrisa will not be offering hard liquor so Green plans to get creative with sake, menuing a variety of sakes as well as drinks such as sake martinis.

A selection of craft beer and ciders will also be on the menu.

“We're thinking about doing some small kegs and some micro kegs if we have enough room,” says Green. “There's all these ciders too and all these new cider drinks that are coming out [and] I’m trying to get a couple of purveyors that are going to pull those for me.”

Related:Presbyterian Communities continues outdoor dining into fall