What is Bevier Café?
Bevier Café is more than just a restaurant and a great place to eat. Bevier Café is also a real-life classroom/laboratory for University of Illinois students who are enrolled in the Quantity Food Preparation and Service course (FSHN340).
FSHN 340 serves as a food service “boot camp” for students who are studying dietetics or hospitality management. All of our students have chosen a career path in which they will interact with professional kitchens and kitchen staff. This class gives students hands-on experience that is vital to success in a fast-paced food service environment.
Bevier Café serves three purposes:
- Teaching students how to safely, effectively, and efficiently run a food service business.
- Providing faculty, staff, students, and campus visitors with delicious meals at affordable prices.
- Tackling on-campus food insecurity by ensuring that every individual who enters our dining room can get a meal, even if they don’t have the means to pay for it.
How does Bevier Café work?
We open our doors for lunch service on weekdays while classes are in session. Faculty, staff, students, and campus visitors are able to select from a wide variety of entrees, sides, desserts, snacks, and beverages. Bevier Café is operated by Food Science and Human Nutrition students, giving them the opportunity to study and experience the problems and issues related to managing a quantity food service operation.
Students rotate through different positions during the semester:
- Managers monitor sanitation protocols, run meetings and oversee customer service.
- Hot Foods and Pantry positions prepare soups, salads, featured entrees, and develop new test recipes.
- Bakery students prepare our world-famous cookies and other sweet treats.
- Scullery positions allow each student to learn how to safely and efficiently run a dish room.