1856 is the country's first tasting-menu-only teaching restaurant – a truly unique and elevated experience where education meets experiential dining. A roof-to-table experience, 1856 – Culinary Residence’s menu is shaped by the produce grown on the rooftop garden of the Rane Culinary Science Center. Seasonally-inspired and rotating often, the menu is set by our Chef In Residence and executed by our culinary team and students.

Chef Tyler Lyne is the inaugural Chef in Residence at 1856 – Culinary Residence. A graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Lyne has traveled the world gaining experience at highly regarded restaurants in The Netherlands, Japan and New York City before moving to Birmingham with his wife, Pastry Chef Jennifer Lyne, and launching Tasting TBL, an intimate chef's tasting experience.

Master Sommelier Thomas Price has spent the last 35 years working in some of Seattle's most prominent restaurants, including his own. Shortly after obtaining his Master Sommelier certificate in 2012, Price joined Jackson Family Fine Wines as National Director of Wine Education. He also worked as a visiting sommelier with Auburn University's Hospitality Management program over the last eight years.

Experience 1856: Every year, a nationally acclaimed chef will work alongside our Ithaka Hospitality Partners team as well as Auburn University's culinary science faculty to create a unique restaurant concept, providing an ever-changing culinary experience for students as well as clientele in a beautiful, intimate environment, with vegetables, produce and herbs coming from an operational rooftop garden, created and managed by Auburn University's Horticulture Program, looking out over our iconic Samford Hall.