Skyviews offers more than great views
They’re not your typical students. They leave their books at home. They wear a uniform to class. They don’t take notes, they take orders.
Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management majors at Texas Tech spend hours every week running Skyviews Restaurant, where they say they get not only an education, but also a glimpse of the real world.
“You get to go behind the scenes and see what it really takes,” said Trey Hart, a senior RHIM major.
Skyviews, set above the treetops on the sixth floor of the bank of America building, is almost entirely student-run. In addition to the view, the restaurant offers a fine dining atmosphere to patrons, and a venue where RHIM students learn restaurant management from the inside out.
“We try to train them for every scenario,” said J.B. Ward, administrator for Skyviews, “because when you get out in the real world you’re going to see every scenario that you can think of.”
This means student’s duties run the gamut –from chopping brightly colored vegetables in the kitchen, to planning diverse and sometimes daring menus, to washing the windows overlooking Tech campus. Students rotate in shifts through the jobs, taking turns as waiters, servers, cooks and even janitors. Leigh Kiselis, executive chef at Skyviews, said the wide range of experience is invaluable for the students.
“You’re more bankable that way,” she said. “If you can walk into an interview and say ‘I can do it all,’ I’d be impressed. I’d say “great, you’re hired.”
Kiselis and Ward are two of the four full-time staff members who oversee the student’s work.
“We’re here as a buffer, they’re supposed to run this restaurant,” Ward said. “We’re standing back and putting out small fires so to speak. Not literally.”
Tasks and student workers at Skyviews are divided between three labs. Students enrolled in the first lab arrive early, clocking in at 7:45 a.m. to prepare the restaurant for lunch. This means vacuuming the restaurant, setting the tables, and preparing food.
“They need to be alert and awake because they’re dealing with knives and fire,” Kiselis said. “But they do a great job.”
Shortly after the first lab leaves, the second wave of students arrive –many of them dressed in button-up shirts with ties. These are the students who will be waiters for the day. Other students take up their positions in the kitchen, where they finish preparing lunch, or behind the buffet where they can help customers fill their plates.
The lunch menu changes daily, and often is the product of the student’s own culinary skills.
“I‘ll start with a piece of chicken, and I’ll say “what’s next?” Kiselis said. “So they pretty much get to create their own dish too.”
Kiselis, who graduated from the culinary school at the Art Institute of Dallas, said she tries to encourage students to take a creative approach towards their cooking –but a cautiously creative one.
“They have to be cognizant, that they’re going to be serving it to customers that are going to be paying for it in about an hour,” she said.
While there’s plenty to do in the first two labs, Ward said the third, the Dinner Series lab, is the pressure cooker.
“Every night you have one chance to make it right,” he said.
Dinner is served just three times a week at Skyviews, and each dinner is planned, administrated and presented by a team of two students, who work as the kitchen manager and service manager for the night.
“They start from zero and work their way up to staffing the restaurant,” Kiselis said. “I’m usually more hands-on with them because that’s the last class they take here before they go out into the real world and perform their own job.”
Students who have worked at Skyviews, and at similar restaurants at other colleges, have an edge when it comes to finding that job said Margaret Binkley, assistant professor of nutrition, hospitality and retailing.
“It’s great for recruiters to know the schools that do this,” she said.
Most larger RHIM programs include a student-run restaurant, Ward said, and some even have a hotel.
But right now, the focus of students and recruiters alike seems to be more on the restaurant aspect. Binkly said the timing is perfect for majors who want to go on to work in restaurant because of the continuing growth of the industry.
Graduates of the RHIM program work at restaurants all over the world–from New York to London to Dallas to Amsterdam. Binkley said Skyviews is a big part of the student’s ability to find good jobs.
“We try to give them the real-life experience so they’re prepared when they go out into the industry,” she said.
And in the meantime, students say they’re enjoying the experience.
“I’m so glad I’m in the major I’m in,” Hart said, “because it’s more hands on, rather than sitting behind a book.”