At Our Place, a restaurant is part of the curriculum.
The comprehensive culinary program at Cape Fear Community College confers a number of certifications all the way up to an associate’s degree. The higher the number of required credits, the more students are trained to interact with customers, from classes in public speaking to guest services management. (The college’s hospitality program can take you to the next level.)
For those studying how to work in a kitchen—where one tends to keep their head down and limit interactions to “Yes, chef!”—an intro to the front of the house is an essential part of the program.
To that end, all students must work as a waiter, runner, busser or host at a series of lunches and dinners at Our Place, the restaurant/classroom attached to the kitchen at the college’s downtown campus.
“We invite the public to come to class on Wednesdays for lunch during the spring semester and dinner during the fall semester,” says Jamie Chadwick, the program director for Culinary Arts and Baking and Pastry Arts.
Classical French cuisine is featured during the fall semester. Dinners are $15 per person and include four courses. Global cuisine is featured during the spring semester, with the menu featuring a different country or region of the United States each week. Lunch is $12 per person and includes three courses.
Mexican cuisine was on the menu for one lunch in April. The students, dressed in black, took orders for posole soup or a deconstructed Mexican street corn appetizer. Entrée courses included Pescado Alendrado (mahi mahi with an almond sauce), Chicken Chimichanga and Quesa Birria Tacos. For dessert there was “Fried” Dark Chocolate–Chili ice cream covered in corn flakes, and Caramel Flan with Fresh Fruit. No tipping allowed, but diners can donate to the student club, the Flying Pigs.
To get on the waitlist for a reservation, go to the college’s website and search for “Our Place”; the page has a section called “Why Is It So Hard to Get a Table?” In a few words, the answer is that it’s a great deal.
At the end of my lunch a man at the table leaned over and said, “Please don’t write about this. We don’t want anyone else to know!”
