Shell Point embraces the farm-to-table concept, with each of the community’s dining venues incorporating fresh Florida ingredients and locally sourced produce into their menus. The Banyan Grille menus a range of popular American favorites and an extensive variety of heart -ealthy choices along with its panoramic view of the Shell Point championship golf course.

The Blend features freshly baked breakfast breads, Belgian waffles, Caribbean French toast, cooked-to-order eggs, breakfast sandwiches and a wide selection of light breakfast items along with freshly brewed coffee, espresso, cappuccinos and other specialty coffee creations. Lunch specialties include housemade soups, salads, deli sandwiches, paninis and made-to-order wraps.

The Breezeway Café, also overlooking Shell Point’s golf course, offers quick, tasty bites and light options with a relaxed alfresco atmosphere while the venerable Crystal—the Island’s neighborhood main dining venue since 1969—recently underwent a complete exterior and interior transformation and now provides offerings ranging from theme buffets and artisan pizzas from a Fire Deck oven to an expansive a la carte menu with patio front dining.

Rounding out the dining choices at Shell Point are the Island Café with its casual menu of coffees, teas, freshly baked pastries, garden-fresh salads, sandwiches, yogurt, ice cream, snacks and soft drinks, and Palm Grill, specializing in a broad range of market fresh and locally sourced land and sea menu options.

Shell Point also recently broke ground on a $77 million project expected to be completed in 2021 to build an onsite healthcare facility called Waterside Health Center that will include a 180-bed skilled nursing facility with private rooms, a full-service health clinic, a rehab center with therapy pool, pharmacy, dental suite, nurse stations, dining and living rooms, sunrooms, plus a salon and day spa. Additional features include a butterfly garden, chapel and prayer garden, boardwalk, gazebo and bistro.

Oak Crest offers sit-down service at The Oak Room and The Fireside; brick oven pizza, rotisserie meats or teppanyaki grill favorites from Banners Café; tapas from 1812; buffet hot entrees and enticing desserts at McHenry’s; outdoor dining at Quarry Grille; and pub fare at Acorn Pub. Hot Meals on the Go is also available from any of the restaurants as well as snacks and sandwiches from the onsite c-store/deli.

Meal plans include a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any Oak Crest restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol.

Charlestown’s Signature Dining program emphasizes fresh menu offerings freshly prepared at the moment of service and delivered in distinctive dining venues. Its menus feature a selection of at least 25 items at a time that combine familiar favorites and regional specialties along with weekly chef specials, seasonal dishes and holiday-themed events. A full-time dining director serves as part of the community’s leadership team and dining leaders work closely with the Charlestown Resident Advisory Council to ensure menus meet residents’ preferences.

Dining venues include the sit-down-style Fireside Restaurant, Atrium and Chesapeake; the casual Terrace Café and Black Swan Pub; the buffet-style Refectory; the short-order Short Line Café; and casual tapas restaurant [email protected]

Like other Erickson properties, Charleston offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any Charleston restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Five dining outlets serve the Greenspring community with a variety of dining platform options. They include the Fireside Restaurant with its selection of dinner entrees in a friendly setting; the all-day Potomac Café with a menu of short-order favorites like salads, deli wraps and breakfast sandwiches; the formal Woodland Skies; the casual neighborhood hangout-style Mixing Bowl Bistro; and the buffet-style Jefferson Restaurant. For those on the go, a variety of snacks and sandwiches are also available in the community’s c-stores and many of the restaurants also offer carryout options.

Like other Erickson properties, Greenspring offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any Greenspring restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Cedar Crest has five dining outlets—Fireside and Overlook are sit-down fine-dining restaurants, Oak Room offers buffet-style service, Mountainside Café is a casual short-order venue and The Bistro is a pub/game room with a billiards table. All offer carryout options ranging from hot meals to sandwiches and snacks.

Like other Erickson properties, Cedar Crest offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Last October, Ann's Choice opened its newly renovated Banners Café in its Village Clubhouse, which includes a second dining area with oversized windows, a fireplace and new equipment that allows the fresh preparation of grilled and sautéed items. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Banners features Ann's Choice's Signature Dining menu with fresh, cooked-to-order choices. Other onsite dining choices include Fireside, Garden Room, Signatures and the casual Acorn Pub, all offering both dine-in and carryout of their menus.

Like other Erickson properties, Ann’s Choice offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

With a significantly larger assisted living and nursing care population that the previous facilities on this list, independently operated John Knox Village offers seven distinctive restaurants, each with its own staff, that collectively offer a variety of healthy menu options and daily specials. A monthly dining credit can be used at any location.

The restaurants include the casual dining Stories Public House with its wide variety of appetizers and pub favorites with an international flare; the full-service Places Restaurant and Café, a traditional formal dining room with breakfast, lunch and dinner menus and special touches like Friday night dinner dances, Sunday brunch and festive holiday buffets; the new Courtyard Café, which offers full-service dining with menu options including salad, pizza, sandwiches, entrees and a full-service bar; the Lakeside Grille in the property’s Country Club Complex, which offers grill and deli-style favorites along with its view of the golf course and lake; Fireside Dining, with a menu of nutritious homestyle comfort food served cafeteria-style; the Coffee Shoppe, a casual spot serving specialty coffee drinks, malts and a variety of sandwiches, soups and salads; and Metropolitan, with a global style menu.

John Knox Village is in the midst of a significant redevelopment effort announced six years ago that has already produced the 112-apartment Meadows complex, which includes the Stories Public House and Metropolitan dining venues mentioned above.

Dining at Brooksby Village ranges from the sit-down Windsor with its pasta/steak/seafood-based menu and Overlook with its emphasis on traditional and regional favorites to the buffet-style Harvest Grill, short-order/casual style Greentree Café and the sports bar ambiance of Cider House Pub.

Like other Erickson properties, Brooksby Village offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

A $30 million renovation announced in 2018 will include upgrades to the dining areas as well as an additional lounge area.

The signature venue of the Masonic Village-Elizabethtown dining universe is the newly enhanced but century-old Cornerstone Restaurant with its beautiful wood finishes and towering ceilings. The other fine-dining establishment on the premises is Eisenlohr, which offers a choice of seven daily entrees.

Otherwise, the choices range from the casual stylings of Courtyard Café (entrees, salads, sandwiches with indoor and outdoor seating), the newly renovated Clubhouse, Orchard View (soups, sandwiches, hand-dipped locally made ice cream), the cafeteria-style Village Café (salad bar, custom deli sandwiches, grilled items), Three Loaves Café (burgers, pizza, sandwiches, salads, ice cream, all-day breakfast), Café 1911 (salad bar, buffet and action cooking stations, made-to-order Masonic Village burgers and sandwiches) with its distinctive stained glass windows and terrace seating overlooking the property’s formal gardens and Goose & Gridiron Tavern (pub food, beer and wine, a pool table, live entertainment).

Masonic’s Eating Well/Living Well initiative provides online dining menus with nutrition information for all items, including indicating which items are from the Masonic Village Orchard, local farms within 25 miles or PA Preferred farms throughout Pennsylvania.

Masonic Village-Elizabethtown also recently completed a new daycare facility that is managed by U-Gro Learning Centre and includes 10 classrooms, a 2,000 square-foot indoor play space and a 13,500 square-foot outdoor play area.

Maris Grove offers sit-down style dining at three onsite restaurants—Millstone, Blue Sky and Woodside Grill—and more casual atmosphere at three others—Grove Pub & Bistro, Tavern 1789 and Coebourn Café with its overstuffed deli sandwiches, fresh salads and short-order favorites.

Like other Erickson properties, Brooksby Village offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Onsite dining options for Fox Run residents and their guests include sit-down eateries Fireside and Signatures, the latter offering a menu of pasta, steak and seafood entrées. There’s also the Hunt Club Café with its hearty breakfast selections and short-order favorites, salads and deli wraps later in the day, and the burger/beer stylings of the Jockey Pub.

Like other Erickson properties, Fox Run offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Seabrook Village has three onsite dining venues: the formal Fireside, the casual Tides Café and the buffet-style Princeton. Like other Erickson properties, Seabrook Village offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Four onsite restaurants serve Linden Ponds residents: the formal, sit-down Overlook and Fireside, and the more casual Acorn Pub and Harbor Café. Like other Erickson properties, Linden Ponds offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Asbury’s newest dining venue is the Blue Note Bistro, which features a full alcohol and coffee bar, and serves pub fare for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Other venues in the complex include the Crawford Dining Room, serving full-service dinners with salad bar Monday through Saturday and a brunch on Sundays; the Hefner Dining Room, which serves a buffet lunch and salad bar and full-service dinners Monday through Saturday and a Sunday brunch; the Park View Dining Room, serving full-service dinners Tuesday through Friday and a breakfast buffet on Sunday; the delicatessen-style Russell Avenue Café, serving breakfast and lunch every day with a wide range of deli and grill fare, daily specials and a salad bar; and the Rosborough Shoppe, located next to the fitness center offering a variety of to-go sandwiches, snacks and drinks Monday through Friday.

The newest dining venue at Ashby Ponds is the 1912 Restaurant, serving a variety of entrées, desserts and chef’s specials. The other more formal dining options on the property are the Blue Sky and Windows restaurants while Robin's Nest Café and Acorn Deli are casual eateries with short-order favorites like fresh salads and deli-style sandwiches. Complementing the restaurants is the Cardinal Market on-site convenience store offering a selection of prepared foods to go, along with gifts and groceries.

Like other Erickson properties, Ashby Ponds offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

Henry Ford Village offers three different restaurants: the casual style Windows Café, the more formal Great Lakes Restaurant and St. Clair Restaurant with its buffet-style dinners. The community’s dining program received some local notoriety last June when its Michigander burger was one of the winners in the annual Burger Battle at Detroit’s Eastern Market. The special blended burger, which features local brands Faygo Black Cherry BBQ sauce and Bettermade Kettle cooked Jalapeno chips and a farm fresh egg, is available at the Windows Café.

Hebrew Home at Riverdale, located in the Bronx, is currently planning a major expansion that would make it the first CCRC in New York City. Completion of the 1.4-million square-foot project, which would include 137 nonprofit residential units for the elderly, 105 assisted living units, 607 skilled nursing beds and 386 independent senior living units, is expected in 2024. Currently, the facility operates an elegant dining room overlooking the Hudson River and a casual dining spot.

Panorama’s single on-campus restaurant, Seventeen51 Restaurant & Bistro, features a full-service bar, coffee bistro and catering services. The menu includes original cuisine with seasonal flavors, housemade soups and dressings and products from local vendors. The bistro portion opens daily at 9 a.m. with the restaurant following at 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday, staying open until 7 p.m. Sunday hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant also has two private rooms for hosting community meetings, celebrations and social gatherings. Unusually, Panorama residents are not required to purchase a meal plan and every home at the complex includes a full-service kitchen to make it easy to prepare and serve meals at home. There are also numerous commercial dining options near the campus.

John Knox of Florida is home to one of the more innovative experiments in the senior dining market—a short- and long-term care facility called the Woodlands that eschews the traditional resident rooms and regimented meal times for a design that has each of six floors divided into two "homes," each with 12 bedroom suites that surround a large open space with a living room, dining room and kitchen area. Each has its own small staff that cooks when residents decide to eat in lieu of a large central production operation. The Woodlands houses 120 long-term residents and has 24 rooms reserved for short-term rehab patients. The first floor of the complex has a fitness studio for physical therapy, day spa and bistro.

Among the dining options operated by management company Morrison at Friendship Village are the year old Mosaic with its regional American and world cuisines, open kitchen, chef’s table and tiled, wood-burning pizza oven; the full-service Seasons located off the facility’s stunning Wintergarden Atrium; and three casual outlets—the Herman’s Bar & Grille pub, the Friends Coffee Shop and Village Market & Café, which combines a fast-casual pizza/soup/sandwich café with a c-store offering items like fresh produce.

Another recent dining-focused addition is FORKK, Friendship Village's state-of-the-art teaching kitchen, which offers cooking classes hosted by Executive Chef Kurt Schroeder, accompanied by a dietitian. Classes are offered regularly to current and potential future residents and classes are also broadcast throughout the community on its in-house television station. Plans to have guest chefs and specialty shows are in the works.

Willow Valley Lakes Manor is one of a group of Willow Valley Communities properties located in close proximity south of Lancaster, and the organization is now also planning a senior living high-rise in a historic venue in the city’s downtown that will include its own dining venues but will also have access to a culinary incubator food hall located across the street that Willow Valley is developing in partnership with a local community development firm. The food hall will also include a community kitchen, a culinary job training center with a demonstration kitchen where the senior community could hold cooking classes, and an event venue where the community could hold functions. Meanwhile, the startups in the food hall could also cater Willow Valley Communities’ events.

Dining outlets at the existing Willow Valley Lakes Manor include the Local Table in the complex’s 30,000-square-foot Clubhouse, which also has the casual Clubhouse Café as well as the Corner Sweets Bakery, and the Overlook artisanal coffeehouse & wine bar, which serves sweets from the Bakery as well as organic and fair trade coffees and coffee drinks plus grab-and-go sandwiches and salads. It then becomes a wine bar from 11 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Each apartment building also operates its own dining venue where residents can get early continental or buffet breakfasts, a community café lunch and buffet or menu-style dinner service.

Wind Crest is expanding its Colorado independent living neighborhood with two brand-new residence buildings scheduled to open in 2020, adding more than 200 apartment homes as well as more than 18,000 square feet of amenity space, including the all-new Carter’s restaurant featuring both indoor and patio dining and a modern tapas-style Bistro. Current dining options at the community include casual hotspots Fly’n B Café and Mile High Café, which feature short-order favorites like burgers, fresh salads and deli-style wraps; the more elegant Fireside and Windows restaurants; the Timberline Tavern with its five big-screen TVs, billiards tables and full bar; and the Blue Sky Bistro market/coffee shop.

Like other Erickson properties, Wind Crest offers two meal plan options—a Traditional “Meal of the Day” that offers a meal credit equal to the number of days in the month to be used at any of the on-site restaurants, and a 20-Meal Plan that includes 20 meals a month in any property restaurant for a reduced Monthly Service Package fee. Also, meal options are available for diets such as low-sodium, low-sugar/sugar-free, heart-healthy, low-carb, vegetarian and low-cholesterol. Dinner entree ingredients, calories, sodium, carbs and other nutritional information are regularly posted on an internal MyNutrition website onto which residents can log.

The main campus dining venue at Cross Keys is the Campus Inn, which operates as a full-service restaurant Monday through Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with a menu of steak, seafood and other hot entrées, as well as sandwiches and burgers, a popular all-you-can-eat soup-and-salad bar and daily specials. The space serves a Grande Buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday, and a Breakfast Buffet on the second Saturday of each month from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. There is also the Harmony Café, which features hot breakfast dishes and baked goods, as well as a lunch menu of burgers, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, wraps, pizza and freshly baked cookies and scones Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with carryout service available. The third venue is the Terrace Café, which serves cafeteria-style meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, featuring hot entrees and sides, hot and cold sandwiches, a salad bar, beverages and desserts. Grab-and-go items are available throughout the day.

Kissimmee Good Sam residents can enjoy cafeteria-style service at the community center six days a week, all-day dining during the week along with breakfast and lunch on Saturdays at the Fairway Café and a bistro breakfast and lunch and dining room lunch and dinner every day at the Heritage Creekside restaurants. The community also offers home-delivered lunches through its Village Mobile Meals service.