Café serves up career experience

A party of eight from the Towne Law Offices in Colonie sat down to a business lunch recently at a small, sunny café just around the corner from their firm. A crisply clad waiter, Shadee Mustafa of Clifton Park, explained the specials of the day. The group enjoyed a variety of culinary creations ranging from pork wraps and chicken scamari to chocolate-dipped strawberries and cassata cake, all attractively plated by Chef Jason Pavone of Colonie.

"We’ve come here before. The food is wonderful, and the service is excellent," said Susan Bartkowski, a partner with law firm. "Café Anders is a well-kept secret."

Café Anders was opened this fall at the Capital Region Career & Technical School, Albany campus, to provide real-life, hands-on experience for students in the Culinary Arts & Hospitality Technology program. Four classes staff the café on a weekly, rotating basis. The students set up the dining room, act as hosts/hostesses and servers, prepare and present the meals, bus tables, and clean and close the café at the end of their school day. Customers include BOCES staff, local residents and businesspeople, and by reservation, small groups for special meetings.

"I wanted to open a student-run café for quite some time, but we really made progress last year after Chefs Mark Brucker and Paul Dolan joined our teaching staff and Chef Christine D’Alessandro moved from our Schoharie campus," said Chef-teacher Anders Faltskog. "And even though I’ve been teaching for 31 years, I was still surprised when the other chef-teachers decided to name the cafe after me."

Bringing the café from idea to reality involved a number of Career Tech programs. HVAC/R (Heating & Refrigeration) students repaired a reach-in cooler for food storage. Electrical Trades students installed wiring for equipment. Building Maintenance students constructed a lunch counter and the exterior Café Anders sign, which is suspended by a wrought iron bracket created by students in the Welding & Metal Fabrication program.

"Ventures like the Café Anders allow our students to experience real world scenarios while still under the watchful eyes of our staff of experts," said Rick Gross, principal of Career Tech’s Albany campus. "Once students demonstrate mastery of skills in such on-campus settings, they are ready to progress to cooperative employment with one of our business partners where they can ‘learn and earn’."

For Culinary Arts Tech Prep student Mustafa, waiting tables and working with customers in Café Anders is "fun and great experience," he said. "I was bored in high school, and my class here spices things up a bit. It doesn’t feel like school, it feels like work, and I like that." Mustafa works at his father’s Dunkin Donuts every weekend and hopes to one day start his own business.

Fellow Tech Prep student Danielle Silvestri also enjoys working at the café and is college-bound in culinary arts. Her career goal changed with a "bam!" when she was 12.

"I wanted to be a teacher until I saw Emeril cooking on TV one day and thought, ‘now that is cool!’ " she said. "I also like the fast pace and job opportunities."

"Running a restaurant is more than just cooking," added classmate Tom Lawson. "At the café, I’m learning about the basics of operating a business."

Katie Teal concurs. "My career goal is hotel management, and through the café, I get to work with customers," she said. "When I wait tables, though, I worry about messing up someone’s order, so I practice a lot!"

[Spring 2002]