Students take charge at Decorah High School's Viking Cafe

Decorah's new Viking Café isn't one of those 24-hour, seven-day-a-week restaurants. The dining establishment serves lunch only, and is open for 90 minutes — from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

What makes it more unusual is it's located in a high school.

Inside Decorah High School's foods room, to be more precise.

'It's very good,' said Michelle Nesteby, a Decorah High School special-education teacher, as she sampled the restaurant's Easter-themed lunch of glazed ham, strawberry salad and chunky potatoes at the cafe on April 17.

'That's why we keep coming back.'

Family and consumer sciences teacher Elaine Lore operates with her 25 Foods II students.

'We do everything as much as if we were running a real restaurant,' Lore said.

That includes a license from the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

The meal, including dessert and a variety of non-alcoholic beverages, costs $5.

The Viking Café opened in February. The eatery is open to the public and has its own door and parking lot so patrons don't have to bother checking in at the school's main office and getting caught in the chaos present in any high school hallway during passing time.

To keep things safe, though, customers are required to make reservations in advance.

'We have not had any concerns,' said Kim Sheppard, Decorah High School's principal, in regard to security. 'Things have gone very smoothly and we anticipate they will continue to go smoothly.'

Lore has worked hard to publicize the restaurant but keeps the mindset that she's not competing with the school's cafeteria nor with other Decorah dining spots.

'I only have 20 people,' she said. 'It's only two days a week.'

Aaron Pena, a 17-year-old senior who works at the cafe, vouched for its authenticity. His parents own a restaurant, where he works as a server, and said that experience has helped him in his Viking Café shifts.

'I think it's actually pretty great,' he said.

His favorite memory was when students had to scramble to make a new dessert when the original batch ran out.

'I liked it because we had to think fast and that adrenaline (was going),' he said. 'There were people waiting.'

Second course

'Mrs. Lore, is this too much lettuce in a bowl?' senior Karissa Bruns asked last week as she prepared the day's strawberry salad with homemade poppy seed dressing. 'Should I take some out?'

The longtime teacher is not a frustrated entrepreneur. In fact, opening a restaurant was never a life goal for Lore.

'I just want to be able to teach the kids how to take care of themselves and have some basic skills,' she said of her job as an instructor.

She and Sheppard, a former family and consumer sciences teacher, had the idea to open a restaurant in the school as they developed the plans to remodel Lore's classroom, one part of a larger high-school renovation project.

'Hospitality and tourism is the big push right now, there's so many jobs,' Lore said. 'We thought this area would give (students) an in.'

The new family and consumer sciences classroom includes appliances and a sink setup that would be at home in any restaurant.

Just as Lore never planned to run a restaurant, many of her students didn't expect to join her. They registered for Foods II without realizing that they'd be signing up to staff the Viking Café, mostly because it didn't yet exist.

'We ended up doing it, and it's fun,' said Melissa Holyoake, a 15-year-old sophomore Foods II student. 'I think it's also good for people in the community because they see what we're learning in class.'

Lore said running the cafe has 'been a shock' to her students, but they've met the challenge.

'They've taken a lot more initiative and they're much more independent,' she said.

Sheppard has seen that as well.

'She has done a phenomenal job. I've seen students blossom,' the principal said. 'This has provided opportunities that they otherwise wouldn't have.'

Lore's two Foods II sections alternate working at the cafe, and the students plan the menus. Because they do takeout orders and begin seating at 11 a.m., much of the actual cooking happens one day in advance.

Lore's students sacrifice their own lunchtimes to work in the restaurant. Shifts include cleanup, serving guests either at their tables or buffet style, and preparing the food.

Many of the Viking Café's guests, a blend of school staff and Decorah residents, stay for the whole 90 minutes, even if they've finished eating.

'It's relaxing,' said Gayle Moen, a classroom aide at the high school, who was also dining at the eatery on April 17. 'Just sit here and enjoy.'

Vegetable medley

The strawberry salad students served on April 17 included freshly cut lettuce grown in the school's greenhouse.

'It's a very good sustainable connection for everyone,' said science instructor Brad Johansen, whose botany and environmental science students are responsible for that lettuce, as well as the peas, tomatoes, green garlic and kohlrabi also growing in the greenhouse. 'It's open grazing, we call it.'

Lore has served some school-grown vegetables at the Viking Café and hopes to use more — all part of her broader vision to involve more than just her students in the restaurant.

The main office's administrative staff members take reservations for the restaurant and printed up gift certificates. Lore asked the school's art students to design a logo for the cafe and wants the marketing students to design a website and handle social media. She's also hoping to get accounting students to do all the financial tracking for the restaurant — the dollars all go into a Foods II account to purchase supplies — while Lore plans to use tips to take the students to a nice restaurant at the end of the school year.

'I want to make it cross-curricular, so it's not just me,' she said.

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