It’s a new day for culinary students in Michigan City. On Wednesday, The Career Café held its grand opening in the old Elston Middle School building in Michigan City. The Café is run by students under the tutelage of Mary Koselke, co-owner of the popular Valparaiso restaurant, Blackbird Café. It isn’t just completely staffed by the A.K. Smith Career Center’s culinary students, but also features a menu completely designed by them as well.
The new restaurant, which is set up in the cafeteria of the old school, caters to the community, making it one of the few places that side of Michigan City’s Franklin Street thoroughfare that offers lunch to the many businesses in the area. The restaurant, which operates as a real business, is initially offering lunch on Wednesdays and Fridays, after which they will move on to include a breakfast menu as well. In addition to their breakfast and lunch offerings, the restaurant also caters and can be reserved for business meetings.
The grand-opening was preceded by a ribbon cutting that saw school officials from across La Porte County, and even over the state line into New Buffalo, Michigan, come together to celebrate the hard work of many bright young kids who are starting their careers in the culinary field early.
“We’re hoping from a community standpoint that we can do a quick-service type of thing for lunches,” said La Porte County Career and Technical Education Director Audra Peterson. “People can do a grab-and-go service, so they can stop and pick something up real quick if they want to. There’s not a lot on this end of town during this time of day. There are a couple of things on Franklin Street, but this part of town, there’re really not a lot of restaurants that we have in this area.”
Today’s menu featured a nachos appetizer, a Naan-bread pizza, grilled cheese, tomato soup, vegetable soup, as well as a chocolate cupcake and a specialty mac-and-cheese dessert. The food itself was a major hit with the lunch crowd, which included Michigan City Area Schools Superintendent Dr. Barbara Eason-Watkins.
“The food was awesome,” said Dr. Eason-Watkins. “I must confess, I was here yesterday as well [at a soft-opening event]. They’re doing a great job and we’re really excited about this opportunity for our students. Not only to ensure that they have the opportunity to understand the full operation of a culinary program and service so they’ll be fully prepared when they finish here at the A.K. Smith Center, but we also think about the community, because we’ll be giving back a couple of days a week. It’s a great win-win for the A.K. Smith Center and the overall Michigan City Community.”
Mary Koselke, the instructor of the culinary arts program at the A.K. Smith Center, was acting as Expeditor today, calling in all of the orders into the kitchen and making sure each was correct and sending the food out to the appropriate tables. For Koselke, teaching is its own reward.
“[The students] are extremely fun,” said Koselke. “If I’m having a bad day before I come to school, I forget about the fact that I’m having a bad day after about 10 minutes in class. I enjoy working with them so much.”
The purpose behind the restaurant project is to provide each student with valuable career experience before they decide to join the workforce or go on to culinary school. They also receive dual-credit from the course the project is attached to through Ivy Tech Community College.
“[The students] are going to have some practical experience to see if this really is what they want to do,” said Koselke. “They get to decide if their career path is working for them in high school, before going through all of that school and paying for that school and deciding they don’t like it.”
The students also designed all of the signage, graphics, and other materials related to the operation of the restaurant, which is by no means a one-time project by a bunch of students- this place has staying power.
“If we can get enough interest, we’ll stay open during the summer too, and I’ll hire kids to work for me during the summer,” said Koselke. “Otherwise, we’ll be open during the school year for lunch, breakfast, and caterings. We’ve already done three caterings this year.”
The students love it, too.
“[The Career Café] is super cool,” said Alexis Redden, a pizza maker at the Career Café and a junior at Michigan City High School. “I like it because it gives me work experience. It gives me experience so when I do want to open up my own restaurant, I know what to do.”
The Career Café will be open to the public from 12:00-1:30 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays starting November 8th.
For more information, visit their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/LPCTE/