On Friday, April 9, the annual restaurant run by students made its debut. The restaurant was a part of a project for Introduction to Foodservice Industry class. This project split students into groups in which they would create the concept for a restaurant, then have staff members judge which one they liked best.

“From their menu, they had to create one item,” Foodservice teacher Daniele Munzer said, “then I had other teachers come in and help judge.”

The students would prepare one dish from their menu, and present it to the judges. The teachers ate the food, then voted on the one that they liked the best. Afterwards, the votes were counted up and the winner was Cassi’s Tapas. Cassi’s Tapas was an idea from senior Isaac Field.

“That’s my name backwards,” Field said. “They all call me Cassi already.”

Other than the name being from an inside joke in the class, the menu itself was inspired by Field’s workplace. He took the menu from Bella Vino and put his own little spin on the items from it. Since Field was the winner in determining the restaurant they’d do this year, he was granted the role of head chef.

“I’m just the head chef,” Field said, “Overlooking everything, making sure everything is getting cooked and prepared right.”

As the head chef, Field was constantly walking circles around the kitchen multiple times. With assistance from the teacher, he made sure that everyone was doing their jobs and everything was in order. All the other students were split into groups, each one managing different parts of the restaurant. Some as dishwashers, others as cooks and some as servers.

“This is his restaurant and we’re running it,” senior Sadock Espoire said.

Each group had to work together to help keep the restaurant running smoothly. They spent days prepping to make sure they knew how to create each dish and to check that they had all the ingredients to cook each dish. Then they had all the staff members send in their orders so they could get ready to cook the food for that customer.

“We got multiple staff members,” Espoire said, “including the principal Theodore Happel, to order from this.”

All the students had to work hard to make sure that everything worked out and that there were minimal errors in each dish before sending the order out. Each staff member that ate at Cassi’s voiced their enjoyment of the food, then paid for the food they were served.

“I feel like it’s going great,” Munzer said. “We’re doing good, so I’m proud of them.”

Overall, Cassi’s was a great success for the students and an enjoyable experience for the teachers eating there. While the restaurant was only open for one day in the school year, the amazing success leaves several staff members looking forward to next year’s restaurant.