Columns Cafe will debut Nov. 13
Cafe will feature seasonal, locally-sourced cuisine.
By Leah Jackson
11/05/2018
NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University’s Hospitality Management and Tourism program will debut the Columns Café Tuesday, Nov. 13. The Columns Café will be open once each month offering a four-course meal prepared by NSU culinary arts students.
The debut menu includes sweet potato and andouille sausage soup, autumn apple salad with maple vinaigrette, mustard-roasted pork loin with squash polenta and chestnut mascarpone with tuile. The meal will begin at 6:30 p.m. at a cost of $40. Seating is limited and will be directed so that all seats are filled. Guests can purchase tickets to reserve their spot online through the NSU Foundation by visiting northwesternalumni.com or by calling HMT Professor Landon Amberg at (138) 357-5072. The Columns Café is located on the second floor of the Family and Consumer Sciences Building in the heart of the NSU campus.
HMT faculty said they have been planning the café about two years, benchmarking similar endeavors at other schools, but tailored to NSU’s logistics and location, Amberg said. The Columns Café is student-run with seasonal, locally-sourced meals prepared in the culinary arts lab and served by students.
The HMT program received support from Wings Over Natchitoches, an event the students catered, as well as alumni and industry partners to make the Columns Café possible.
“This is a great opportunity for our students,” Amberg said. “We already cater the alumni tailgate parties and other events on campus and this takes the classroom into the real world.”
“We center everything around experiential learning,” added HMT Professor Valerie Salter. “The food service industry is begging for qualified employees across the nation and around the world. This gives our students culinary experience and operational experience.”
Buy 2019, all the dates for the Columns Cafe will be listed on the HMT website, so patrons can purchase tickets for the date they want to attend. More information is available at hmt.nsula.edu.
