The Auburn University fine-dining restaurant 1856 – Culinary Residence has been named the best new restaurant in Alabama in Southern Living magazine's list of The Best New Restaurant in Every Southern State 2024. A roof-to-table experience, 1856 – Culinary Residence’s menu is shaped by the produce grown on the rooftop garden of the Tony & Libba Rane Culinary Science Center. Seasonally-inspired and rotating often, the menu is set by the Chef In Residence and executed by the award-winning culinary team and students of the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management at Auburn University.  

1856 - Culinary Residence is the country's first tasting-menu-only teaching restaurant – a truly unique and elevated experience where education meets experiential dining. 

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 - Culinary Residence: Every year, a nationally acclaimed chef will work alongside the 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 iconic Samford Hall.