Warren County Technical School students looking for customers at Knights Cafe

Sunday, March 28, 2010
By BILL WICHERT
The Express-Times

The Oxford Township resident sometimes found himself on the other side of the cookie tray during his first three years at Warren Tech. Now in his senior year, Miller recently was sporting a blue chef's shirt and asking customers whether French onion or broccoli and cheddar soup suited their taste buds.

Serving a large crowd at the school's Knights Cafe can feel overwhelming, but Miller has learned to remain calm.

"The key is to keep your cool," he said.

In fact, the Warren Tech restaurateurs aren't seeing enough people walking through their doors.

School officials and students are hoping more members of the public will start taking their lunch breaks at the Knights Cafe, where diners can feast on such homemade creations as "Jake's World Famous" Burger.

The restaurant is open noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. A special event called "Big Night" is held once a month and provides multiple courses based on a different theme.

"We're not well-known enough," school board member Harold Warne said. "We're not trying to put other places out of business. What we're trying to do is give real-life experience to the students."

Starting with what their instructor referred to as space resembling a "hospital room," the students worked since the beginning of the school year to establish a restaurant.

They hung up curtains and repainted the cafe's walls in shades of red, white and blue. They crafted all of the menu items, from sandwiches to salmon steak. Business cards and flyers were generated to let customers know about the fresh endeavor.

Erin Creaven -- the namesake behind "Creaven's Chicken Caesar Salad" -- said it's very rewarding to see the end result of all the students' planning.

"We started from the bottom up," said Creaven, a Warren Tech senior and Washington resident. "We did it. Everything on there we made."

Knights Cafe is run by a group of 16 juniors and seniors led by Pedro Fortun, the school's hospitality, administration and management instructor. Thirteen freshmen and 12 sophomores spend time in the classroom and learn basic skills in the kitchen.

More than just cooking, the students are learning what it means to run a business. The seniors take turns handling the purchasing to prepare for each upcoming week. Menu items are removed if they are not selling or if they are selling too much and taking business away from other dishes, Fortun said.

"I tell the students this (menu) is the only tool you have to sell your product," Fortun said. "It's alive. It has to be."

Visiting Knights Cafe for the first time last week, Jewels Quelly, who employs several students for her catering business and personal chef service, and is a freelance food writer for The Express-Times, said the students' detailed training is apparent.

"The service has been terrific and attentive, and the food is just delicious," Quelly said while dining. "You can see that they pay attention to garnishing and to detail and to timing, and timing is very important.

"The food has been hot or cold as it's supposed to be, and there is nothing that starts a meal off better than attentive service and hot food that's hot, or cold food that's cold," Quelly added.

Warren County Technical School's student-run restaurant is open to the public noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

The school is located at 1500 Route 57 and the menu is available on the school's Web site, www.warrennet.org.

For more information, call 908-835-2398.