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New Restaurant to Benefit OCC Students and the Northside Community

sunyocc.edu

Students at Onondaga Community Collegecan learn in a new restaurant that will also pay benefits for Syracuse's Northside community.  Sarah Robin, the first restaurateur in residence, will have Pakistani food on the menu in the teaching restaurant.

“I want to open my own restaurant in the future so this whole program is helping a lot. I know how to cook but I really want to learn some management skills” Robin said. “So I think this hotel and these skills will help me to really make me the person whom I have to be.”

Robin has been in OCC’s food service management program for three months now.   The restaurant will change its cuisine every six months so students can learn new foods and also new skills that come along with that region of the world.  Program manager Adam Sudmann wants to help students get better than minimum-wage jobs

“And we have this responsibility to our students not so much to teach them how to cook Pakistani food but to cook the range of foods that they are going to encounter in the work force” said Sudmann.  “So some techniques many not come up a lot in Pakistan or Ethiopia or Burma or wherever else we happen to visit.”

Credit sunyocc.edu
OCC opened teaching restaurant location at 435 North Salina St., which will feature different ethnic cuisines and involve students. Called "With Love", it will be open two days-a-week for lunch and two other days-a-week for dinner.

The new program will help students in their education and careers. The new restaurant will also help the north side of Syracuse. Northside Urban Partnership Director Dominic Robinson hopes it will change the stigma that is attached to the area

“And so we’re here in a building that once was looked at as a liability, a crumbling tax-delinquent property on the north side, that now is going to be an engine for economic opportunity and a cultural jewel” Robinson explained. “And so it’s just a really amazing story to show what happens when you look at things in a different way and you see them as assets instead of liabilities.”       

The restaurant, “With Love”, is located at 435 North Salina Street and will be open four days a week.   

  •         Tuesday’s – Lunch from 12-2 p.m.
  •        Wednesday’s – Lunch from 12-2 p.m.
  •        Thursday’s – Dinner from 5-8 p.m.
  •        Friday’s – Dinner from 5-8 p.m.

Another aspect of the program is that all food served at "With Love" will be locally sourced.  OCC reports suppliers include:

  •        Salt City Harvest Farm in Kirkville
  •         Regional Access in Ithaca
  •         Jubilee Homes’ Urban Delights Farms in Syracuse
  •         Pyramids Halal Meat in Syracuse
  •         Altanoor Grocery in Syracuse
  •         Namaste Market in Liverpool
  •         Peter Guinta & Son Produce in Syracuse

Currently six students are involved in the program, with the goal of getting up to 24 involved.