Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality students hosted the first of many upcoming pop-up restaurants Friday, March 18 at House 51 on campus.
Every semester, culinary students are placed in groups and asked to create their own pop-up restaurant. Students have free reign to construct a restaurant theme, decide each group member’s role, and pick a week to serve a five-course meal to a dining room full of paying customers.
This week Rachel Garabedian, Jordan Barr and Sara Mellars occupied House 51 with a “New American” themed restaurant. The three students were responsible for every detail, including setting up the dining room, training staff and making a detailed menu. Servers arrived at 2 p.m. and service started at 5 p.m. Employee handbooks were also created for servers.
“It is extremely stressful because there is no rubric,” Garabedian said.
“New American is our theme. It is a mixture of everything. My menu is: bread, root salad, scallops, rabbit, cheese plate and a dessert,” Garabedian said.
Garabedian was the front of the house manager, Barr was the general manager, and Mellars was back of the house.
“I don’t get stressed. The hardest part would be the details,” Barr said.
Being in a group setting was not difficult for these three. They all collaborated on ideas for the menu and knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. House 51 was hectic as students and employees did their best to create the atmosphere the team wanted.
“We all have different strengths,” Mellars said.
Immense hard work went into the pop-up concepts. Mellars said she had been planning since the beginning of the spring semester and is very happy with her group members.
When asked about opening her own restaurant one day, Mellars said she has been asked a few times, but as of now she does not wish to have her own place. She went on to say that what she is doing now is what she plans to do after graduation. Culinary students expect that this assignment will boost their resume.
“This is what I want to do. I want to start restaurants and create concepts,” Barr said.
There are four more pop-up restaurants scheduled for the semester, each on a Friday. For more information about pricing, menu items, and how to make a reservation, visit the Michael A. Level School of Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality’s website.
