Florida school cafeteria offers shopping-mall style food court

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 23, 1998 by Kathy Blake

Responding to student requests for a more retaillike school cafeteria, Bayside High School in Palm Bay, Fla., opened a food court that likely will be the prototype for other cafeterias in the Brevard County School District.

The new cafeteria, opened this fall in the 67,000-student district's newest high school, offers students all the glamour of a shopping mall food court and all the fresh-baked pizzas, cooked-to-order grilled sandwiches and chicken nuggets that teen-agers consider good eating, according to foodservice director Dawn Houser.

"Traditional one-line, no-option cafeteria service is not acceptable to contemporary students, who are more sophisticated and expect to be able to make their own food choices," Houser said. "Fast food, in general, and food-court-style floor plans, in particular, are their ideal for both food and function."

The food court, which features six different menu concepts, took years to design and construct, she noted. The Spicy Meatball is one of the consistently busiest areas, where pizzas are baked in an oven directly behind the service line and are served hot and fresh. Another popular area is The Broadstreet Deli, where students can pick up a sub sandwich and take it to a self-serve condiment bar to dress it as they like.

At the Graffiti Grill, hot sandwiches are made-to-order. Chicken, burgers and veggie patties are the most popular grilled items and are prepared on two-sided cookers, which make grill marks.

"In our part of the country, Mexican is the most popular ethnic food, so Sombreros is always busy, too," Houser added. Croutons, the salad bar, is the final food station.

Fresh, from-scratch baked goods are offered at every serving area.

"Some foodservice departments are cutting their costs by buying baked goods or using frozen products," Houser said, "but we decided that rather than cut costs, we'll increase revenues by making ours from scratch and selling a lot of them."

In addition to the ever-popular chocolate-chip cookies and brownies, students in Brevard County also buy "pizza pinwheels," which are filled with pizza sauce, cheese and meat, rolled jelly-roll fashion, sliced and baked. Pepperoni bread and bread sticks with dips are also best sellers.

"Throughout the menu we use as many commodities as we can," Houser said. "That's the secret to our food cost savings, and we've found that even though we're not a huge district, our manufacturers are willing to work with commodities to produce what we want."

Houser explained that, when Bayside was conceived, it carried a $33 million price tag. However, the district's construction budget was only $16 million, meaning that virtually every department was asked to suggest ways to reduce the cost of construction.

"In making changes to the original plans for the new school's cafeteria, I was able to reduce the amount of equipment, the number of seats and the size of the building," Houser said. "Overall, these changes cut the cost by $250,000. By saving money on food, labor and supplies as well as making cuts where we can on construction and equipment costs on new projects, we will have extra money to make improvements in all our cafeterias."

The district has 78 elementary and secondary schools.

As a result of Houser's successful streamlining suggestions, she was given carte blanche to design the new food court using professional consultants and designers.

"I've seen what passes as a food court in some school cafeterias," Houser said. "They hang some beige-and-white awnings and handmade signs, which, in my opinion, isn't enough. I didn't want to say, 'We're going to have a food court,' then have no input from professional artists and designers. I wanted the whole food-court look with full facades, great signs and very distinct looks for each concept."

First, Houser and her staff established what kinds of foods would be offered. Then they brainstormed with Monty Olinger and his staff at SCA Design Group, an Orlando, Fla., restaurant design firm, and decided on names for the six areas.

The next stop was Don Bell Signs, a major sign producer with a client list that includes Walt Disney World, to develop the signage.

With the colors, lights and facades all planned and in the works, Houser made some back-of-the-house modifications to ensure that production and service could keep up with demand. Food preparation for all six stations takes place in one central kitchen. Pass-throughs, a window between the kitchen and serving area, some refrigerated and the others heated, have glass doors on both sides to make restocking convenient and efficient.

Traffic moves smoothly through service lines in part because a cashier is stationed at the end of each line.

"We planned it that way because we've found that if you keep high-school kids waiting in line too long, they tend to eat most of what's on the tray before they get to the cashier," Houser said. "And they have only so long to eat lunch, so we wanted to be sure there wouldn't be a backup."

Houser's department has a strong track record for making cafeterias work efficiently and profitably. Houser reported that cafeteria prices in the district have not increased since 1989, and in spite of a slight decrease in the number of students, revenues are up. Revenues in the 1997-98 school year were $500,000 more than in 1995-96.