The American River College Oak Cafe will be re-opening on Feb. 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that the campus is not closed.

“We will have a new menu every week,” J.D. Skidmore, an instructional aide and dining room manager, said. Culinary students come up with their own recipes and courses.

The menu for the opening days of Feb. 11 and 12 consists of roasted red pepper prawns, steak diane, and a dessert trio.

The cafe was designed to give students a real-world experience in how to run a fine dining restaurant. The service staff consists of students enrolled in the dining room management course, while all kitchen staff are culinary students.

“Most students that are serving on Feb. 11 are students on their last semester,” said culinary student Bunnie Evans said.

“We have to finish all the prerequisite courses to get to this point,” said culinary student Ashley Marsh.

A three to four course meal is $15.00 at the restaurant. A reservation is required ahead of time to the restaurant, which has four stars on Yelp.

Guests can also order from an a la carte menu which is one entree ranging from seven to nine dollars.

The Oak Café bakery, which serves pastries and sandwiches, will also be open on Feb. 11 at 7:30 a.m. and will close when food has sold out.

All the food is prepared by culinary students and the cafe and bakery are student run.

Approximately 10 years ago, this department was once called the Home Economics department but has since grown into the

hospitality management and culinary department.

“The business end of this curriculum is due to the expertise of Brian Knirk, program director,” said Skidmore.

“We are so fortunate to have the best of both worlds of which we also have Teresa Urkofsky, who is our baking chef, and James Chaves, chef for Oak Café,” said Skidmore.