OCC formally opens training restaurant on North Salina Street

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga Community College (OCC) on Friday formally opened With Love, a teaching restaurant located at 435 North Salina St. where La Cuisine, a Mediterranean restaurant, previously operated. 

Students enrolled in the school’s food-service management and line-cook programs will staff the restaurant to learn about cooking cuisines and operating various restaurant formats.

The restaurant’s cuisine will change every six months, OCC said in a news release. A student serving as the entrepreneur/restaurateur in residence will make that determination.

The first student in that role, Sarah Robin, is from Lahore, Pakistan, and she has chosen a Pakistani cuisine. 

“The eatery is a “unique venue for our community,” Mark Manning, OCC senior VP and CFO, said in his remarks at the Friday grand-opening event. 

“That is because this is not only a restaurant but it is a workforce-training facility designed to train local people for jobs in the food-service management industry right here in Central New York. This restaurant will be a living laboratory for students to learn the fast-paced restaurant business through real life, hands-on experience,” said Manning. 

The restaurant’s weekly schedule includes serving lunch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and dinner on Thursdays and Fridays between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., per OCC.

Six OCC students will initially operate With Love, Adam Sudmann, program manager for OCC’s food-service management program, said in speaking with reporters at the formal opening ceremony.

Sudmann anticipates having 24 students involved in the restaurant by December 2017, he added.

Project background
The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) invested $300,000 into the project, J. Ryan McMahon II, chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature, said in his remarks at the event.

OCIDA bought the parcel at 435 N. Salina St. from the Greater Syracuse Land Bank for $99,000, according to the property record on the website of the Onondaga County Office of Real Property Tax Services. OCIDA leases it to OCC.

OCC uses a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) TAACCCT grant to pay for its food-service management program, the school said.

TAACCCT is short for trade-adjustment assistance community college and career training grant program, according to the USDOL website.

OCC cites additional partnerships in helping the school launch the training restaurant. They include CenterState CEO’s UP Start program, which gives the restaurateur in residence “wraparound business and financial training.”

The UP Start program “offers introductory classes on business plan creation, business structure and assistance with launch,” according to the CenterState CEO website.

In addition, Catholic Charities provides a five-week, prerequisite course in industrial kitchen best practices and ServSafe certification, OCC said.

ServSafe is a certification program through the Chicago, Illinois–based National Restaurant Association, per the association’s website.

OCC also cited the Onondaga Civic Development Corporation, which “secured the restaurant location initially and assisted with funding renovations.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com