Mentor Tiffany Granell (right) and Diamond Wright (left), a grad from Church Hill Activities and Tutoring (Photo by Jay Paul)
Richmond has a problem: Our dining scene is booming.
If you think more and better restaurants can only be a great thing, then you need to talk to the owners, bakers and cupcake makers. They’ll give you a far more practical — and sobering — take on the supposed marvelousness of the boom. Namely: There simply aren’t enough qualified, experienced people to staff the many operations now running.
Fortunately, help may be on the way, if some recent initiatives succeed.
October saw the opening of the Front Porch Cafe in Church Hill. The café, a restored gas station, serves more than breakfast and lunch; it serves as a training ground for teens in Church Hill and the East End, giving them a chance to learn the ins and outs of the business.
Inside Front Porch Cafe (Photo by Jay Paul)
Front Porch, a project under the umbrella of Church Hill Activities & Tutoring's Work Leadership Institute, comes on the heels of last year’s city-run culinary arts program, an eight-week course that counted 100 percent placement in such high-profile destinations as Metzger and Saison.
Next up: The Culinary Institute at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, an expanded culinary and hospitality program in Church Hill, which is scheduled to open late next year. Officials hope it proves as vital and influential to Richmond as Johnson & Wales University campus was for Charleston, South Carolina, before its 2006 closure.
“Bringing other people up so they can flourish” is how Tiffany Granell, a mentor and manager at Front Porch, describes the ongoing efforts to shore up the scene and incorporate folks who traditionally have not found work in the industry.
Teens who complete the program work from two to four after-school and weekend shifts a week. During a seven-week training program in the summer, kids learned how to prep food, cook, bake and even make coffee, thanks to a barista course with Blanchard’s Coffee. The hope is that the skills they learn will put them in a position to earn opportunities with other restaurants.
Training teens isn’t the only goal of Front Porch. All the teens at Front Porch, and nearly all the employees, too, live within walking distance of the café, which has evolved to become more than just a lab; it has become a gathering place where folks from the neighborhood can meet, hang out and relax, an open, light-filled spot that stands in marked contrast to the often hardscrabble surroundings. Having propped up one community, here's hoping it can help to do the same for the restaurant community.
