Soup’s on: C4’s student-run restaurant reopens after pandemic break

Carla Clark | For The Republic J.R. Wynn grills the chicken for the Tupelo Honey Chicken with harvarti cheese and cranberry mayo sandwiches at the C4 Culinary Arts Program Courtyard Restaurant, located at Columbus North High School, Columbus, Ind., Thursday, December 8, 2022.

“The best kept secret in Columbus.”

That’s how C4 Chef Instructor Carrie Douglas describes the Courtyard Restaurant, an eatery run by C4 culinary students and located at Columbus North High School.

The restaurant recently reopened for the first time since 2019 and will be open on Tuesday and Thursday this week before closing for the season. It will then reopen in April. Seatings are at 11:45 a.m. and noon, and reservations are required. To make a reservation, email [email protected] or call 812-376-4259. More information is available at bcscschools.org/c4.

The Courtyard has been around since the inception of C4’s culinary program, said Douglas. It is located in a small dining room at the high school, which seats up to 54 people.

“The students completely run it,” said Douglas. “I’m just here to supervise. So the students do everything from setting up the tables, rearranging the dining room. They help to plan the menu, they serve the guest, they are back here also cooking for the guest, they do all of the food, all of the plating. Just everything that goes into every part of running a restaurant, the students are doing. And that’s the primary reason we have the restaurant, is to give them that kind of real-world feel.”

She said that while this exact experience is not explicitly required by the state, students do have to complete a certain number of “work-based learning” hours.

Most proceeds from the restaurant go toward covering its costs. Anything extra goes to a general classroom fund. This helps pay for items such as participation in culinary competitions, uniforms, field trips and other costs students might encounter.

Prior to November, the Courtyard hadn’t been open since December of 2019, having shut its doors amid the pandemic.

During that time, students shifted to making “take and bake meals,” which helped them experience a different aspect of the culinary industry.

“We did everything from manicotti to chicken tetrazzini,” said Douglas. “We would offer four to six servings, a family-style meal. It came with a salad, rolls, an entrée of some kind and a simple dessert, like cookies or brownies. And actually, it really became popular, because even though we’ve now been able to reopen the restaurant, I still have people asking, ‘Are you going to do the take and bake meals?’”

In discussing the challenges that come with running the Courtyard, Douglas said that timing is an obstacle, as students are still in school and have to fit this in around their other classes, giving them a tight timeframe.

Still, she said that the kids “absolutely love” running the Courtyard, and it helps open them up to new experiences.

“One might be afraid to serve, and they don’t want to do it,” she said. “And so I kind of put them in that position, and they realize that they love it. They really get to learn areas of the restaurant that they truly love that they never really thought they would.”