The Westshore Culinary Arts Program opened its student-run restaurant, the Ranger Café, to the public on Oct. 22 as part of its annual grand opening for the school year. Seniors who worked primarily in the back of the house during their junior year now have the opportunity to experience the chaos of cooking and running the front of the house in real time.

Under the instruction of Chef Rob McGorray and Chef Devan Corti, the Culinary Arts Program has its students run the majority of the roles involved in operating a successful restaurant.

“I would say that the goal is for students to be in charge or to lead what we’re doing here, and for us to be in support of them. And, of course, we intervene when we need to. A lot more might be done initially by us, helping with the menus and things like that, because the kids just need a guide. Then they kind of take [it from there],” said Chef Corti.

This growth is observed by the support of staff, such as Paraprofessional Joanne Schwark. “[They] operate in a program over multiple years, we get to see the growth of the students from the junior to the senior, growing into their confidence, their ability to overcome their own particular discomforts,” said Schwark.

This year’s seniors operate the Ranger Café, which is open to the public from 12 to 1:30 p.m. They handle both front-and-back-of-house duties, including taking reservation calls, serving customers and cooking meals. Support from staff like Joanne Schwark, a paraprofessional at West Shore, makes the student-run service possible. Schwark said she “work[s] to support whatever the greatest need is at the moment.” On service days, she added, “It helps to have somebody in the front of the house so that the students can actually serve our guests, and someone can be there to expedite the to-go orders and work on the cash register if necessary.”

On opening day, the Ranger Café welcomed a crowd that was eager to try this year’s new menu. While customer volume varies weekly, staff at Lakewood High School usually make to-go orders, adding to the volume and excitement in the back of the house.

“That’s one of the things with this — figuring out how to [think] on your feet and kind of fix issues when they arrive because it’s not going to be perfect,” said culinary student Abe Ballard.

Preparing for Success

A restaurant’s success depends not only on its hours of operation but also on the prep days leading up to service. Although juniors cannot participate during open hours because of their morning classes, they play a key role in the prep work, ensuring nothing is overlooked.

To make things more manageable for the seniors during open hours, the Culinary Arts Program added an extra prep day. In previous years, the Ranger Café was open Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving only one day to prepare.

“This year, we switched to Wednesdays and Thursdays being open. We really wanted that added day [to] prep and for setup, just to make sure we’re fully ready for our customers. Typically, we’re prepping up until the day we open,” Chef Corti said.

To make service more streamlined for the smaller senior class, Chef McGorray and Chef Corti decided to change the menu this year. Last year, the Ranger Café featured an à la carte menu — allowing customers to order individual items — and later added a buffet. While popular, it was challenging for students to keep up with regular service and to-go orders with limited staffing.

Simplified Service

The program is now utilizing a prix fixe menu approach.

“This year, we’re trying a prix fixe menu where everyone gets the same thing: everyone gets three choices. For instance, you can have a beet salad or tomato soup, or you can have either salmon or pork, and then either Kimberly or chocolate cheesecake. So you get one of each thing, and it’s a lot easier to manage it and get the food out, and that frees us up to do a lot of other things, like add some special things that we couldn’t have done before,” said Chef McGorray.

With this change, students provide input and are encouraged to tweak menu offerings.

“I’m the one that does the salad … I chose this beet salad, [but the chefs] sort of will workshop it; the chefs will know what can make something better than how it originally is. So the final beet salad that we serve is very different than what I originally found,” Ballard said.

The plan for the Ranger Café is to continue operating with the prix fixe menu, with occasional small changes and new specials. The café has found a successful formula that allows the students to prepare every item from scratch.

“We make everything from scratch: stocks, soup, sauces [and] bread. We’re changing up our specials weekly. The public [is] coming in and dining in for that three-course set price meal,” said Chef Corti. “I think that’s what sets us apart.”

Schwark added that as a first point of contact, she is “able to interact with the public and see how impressed they are with our student achievement,” and for her, that is “an incredible experience.” With its fresh approach and student-driven innovation, the Ranger Café is not just serving up meals — it’s serving up that incredible culinary experience, one from-scratch plate at a time.