Iowa City School District officials are planning a vocational career class and developing partnerships with local restaurants and businesses as part of the ProStart program, a national course that instructs high-school students in skills as chefs, managers, and restaurant owners.

Joan Vandenberg, the district’s youth and family-development coordinator, said the internship would be the first of its kind in the Iowa City schools.

“I think this is a brilliant idea. It brings real world experiences to the classroom,” Vandenberg said. “I wish we had more like it in the district.”

Owners of Basta, Atlas, and Jimmy Jack’s Rib Shack restaurants have met with high-school officials to outline plans for the internship.

Jeffrey Adams, the general manager at Jimmy Jack’s, said he believes the restaurant’s atmosphere would work well with the program.

“I think that Jimmy Jack’s is definitely a learning environment,” Adams said. “That’s what we strive for, that we take the time to teach all of our employees, and that’s what we’d do with our interns.”

While students would not earn any wages directly for their 400 hours of training at the restaurants, they would receive seven credit hours if they continue on and join Kirkwood’s culinary program and also receive certification from the National Restaurant Association.

“The idea is to get the experience, and have the hands on and hopefully in the end, end up with the paying position,” Tate High Principal Will Hollander said.

Currently, plans go beyond just culinary work.

“There’s the management side of it, cooking, learning to interact, present, describe meals as a chef would — those are the aspects that come to mind immediately,” Hollander said. “The goal — besides training and educating kids — is to have that direct tie with industry and also that hands-on experience.”

The program will use resources the school already has to minimize outside costs, the principal said.

“All we need to get are some additional materials to supply the Tate High School cooking space. A lot of what we’re going to use is kitchen as it is,” Hollander said. “It’s small, but it is a commercial production kitchen.”

Vandenberg said she felt the program would be a positive addition to the post-graduation and career placement programs the Iowa City school district offers students.

“I really don’t see a downside to this,” she said. “I think it’s an excellent idea, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”

Yet Hollander said officials still have a few kinks to work out before the class opens to students in the fall.

“It’s a long ways from being implemented,” he said. “It’s still in the brainstorm stage. We have training for staff to do, we have equipment to purchase, and transportation issues to take care of.”

And Hollander said he’s optimistic.

“Knock on wood that we do get it kicked off on time,” he said.

*Article Credit: Asmaa Elkeurti, Daily Iowan Staff

Brian Ray/ The Gazette

According to KCRG-TV9, investigators plan to get inside the building that housed a Bruegger’s Bagels shop on Tuesday.

The building has been deemed unsafe since it was damaged by fire more than a week ago.

Iowa City Fire Marshal John Greir says crews will begin sifting through debris, looking for the cause of the fire.

Written by: The Gazette Staff

The Gazette

October 4, 2011

A pooch kick from where Nate Kaeding booted his way into Hawkeye history books, the former West High and University of Iowa standout and current NFL place-kicker plans to open a new restaurant.

The restaurant hasn’t been named yet, but the plan is for a morning coffee shop, full-service lunch and dinner menus and Sunday brunch, Kaeding said. He and his partners hope to open by early June, Kaeding said.

“Being an Iowa City guy born and raised … I just had an interest to get involved. It was a fun side project for me,” Kaeding said.

Location To Be Former Taste On Melrose

The restaurant will take over the former space of Taste on Melrose, 1006 Melrose Ave., which closed on Feb. 14. The location is in a neighborhood setting just down the road from Kinnick Stadium and UI Hospitals and Clinics, which has 6,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of patient visits a year.

The menu is still being developed, Kaeding said. The meals will be fairly traditional, such as chicken sandwiches and pork tenderloins, but each dish will be made unique by featuring an Iowa ingredient. Prices will range from $9 to $15, he said.

“It will be Iowa ingredient-driven food, and it will be at a price point that will be very accessible,” Kaeding said.

The restaurant will also accommodate sports fans who want to grab a hot dog and burger and watch a game on television, Kaeding said. The plan calls for putting in a patio along the length of the building, Kaeding said.

Kaeding is partnering with Dan Ouverson, who co-owns the Mill Restaurant, and Kevin Perez, a local chef. The trio opened Short’s Burger and Shine, 18 S. Clinton St., in 2008.

Kaeding, who has played for the San Diego Chargers since he left UI 2004, still returns to the Iowa City area in the off-season. The restaurants serve as a good side project for life off the field, Kaeding said.

“Some day football is going to give up on me, so I will have to come up with something to come back to,” Kaeding said. “And, it is fun to be involved in a project that doesn’t have anything to with sports.”

via IC Press Citizen