On the fourth floor of Wagner Hall lies a hidden gem on the South Dakota State University campus — the Wagner Cafe.
Wagner Cafe is a restaurant run by the quality food production and services students, a four-credit class with prerequisites. The cafe is open on Tuesday from 12 to 12:45 p.m. during spring semester, and has been operational since April 27, 2004, coming up on 21 years this month. The cafe is in Wagner Hall, Room 429.
The course is taught by associate professor Kunsoon Park in the school of health and consumer science. Park hopes to see more students take the class in the future with a goal of having the cafe open all academic year rather than just the spring semester.
The cafe offers guests a home-cooked meal and a fine dining experience without leaving campus for $12 in Hobo Dough, cash or check. The cafe also offers a to-go option for students like Claire Wagner who are passing through on their way to class.
“I liked the to-go option and how quickly the food came,” Wagner said. “It was really good food, and it was a quick and easy process to get it. My favorite part was that the food tasted home cooked.”
For the students who run the cafe, it offers a hands-on experience to learn about all the various parts that go into operating and running a restaurant. There are five students in charge each week that rotate in groups to get experience in all aspects of the cafe.
“For guests, this is a fine-dining experience, so when they come in, we have the table setting (and) everything so guests can have the feel of the fine dining experience,” Park said.
Professor Park believes having the experience the Wagner Cafe offers is very important and valuable for their future. Food is involved in many different hospitality jobs such as hotels or event centers, so gaining the knowledge of food service now will help them tremendously in the future.
The meal prepared each week is chosen by the group in charge. The group must do all the grocery shopping for the meal themselves with a limit of 40% of the cost of each meal which is about $4.80 of the $12 meal.
“It is pretty much strictly student run,” said quality food production and services student Maicy Lourens. “We do all the cooking, all the prepping, all the cleaning. We serve everyone. For my student meal we had a girl that couldn’t make it so he (Professor Park) stepped in and did the cash register, but for the most part we will have students doing that, serving, cooking. It’s kind of all up to the students to get most of it done. He and our teacher’s assistants are just there for questions.”
The Wagner Cafe’s grand reopening this semester was Feb. 11. The cafe closed in the first semester due to lack of students and a prerequisite course that many students needed to take. The course includes both nutrition and hospitality students so that they can learn from each other and form new connections.
The cafe runs and operates like a normal restaurant so all students must have a ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification by the National Restaurant Association. The cafe must also pass a health inspection and its food service license needs to be renewed every year to serve guests.
The money made by the cafe goes back into a fund for supplies such as plates, table clothes, food and much more. The students of the class prep-cook Monday, on Tuesday they finish cooking from 10 a.m. to noon and serve guests from noon to 12:45. Clean up is from 1 to 2 p.m.
