On Thursday, March 5, a group of 40 students from Herman J. Russell West End Academy arrived at Atlanta’s historic Paschal’s restaurant to participate in “A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager,” a new program from Concessions International (CI) designed to cultivate interest in culinary and hospitality careers among 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.
“When I started in this role in October I met with our business development team and said, ‘We have so many assets and we need to activate them and we need to focus on young people,’” said Nikki Tinsley Harland, CI’s new CEO. The assets she’s referring to include CI’s strong connection to both Herman J. Russell West End Academy and Paschal’s—the school is named for CI’s founder, Herman J. Russell, and CI operates three Paschal’s locations at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Additionally, Russell’s granddaughter, Mori Russell Atkins, is a business development manager for CI.
“As a family member, I thought it was so important that we’re not just a name on the school, but that we’re actually involved in the school,” Russell Atkins said. “So, when Nikki tasked us with doing something that ties in CI, that’s when we came up with the idea to bring these students into the restaurant and give them this behind-the-scenes experience of what it’s like to be a restaurant manager.”
Harland noted that CI hopes to be providing a “clarifying voice” for these students. “We want them to know that if they decide to go down this path in hospitality, there are so many options for them that they may not know about—that’s what makes this program critical,” she says. “Our hope is that the students absorb it and then go back to their households and talk about their experiences and maybe inspire others in their home to pursue restaurant work and hopefully airport restaurant work specifically because that’s a big gap for us. I don’t know that anyone starts kindergarten saying, ‘I want to be a restaurant manager in an airport’ but we want to build excitement around that, and we’re just proud that we get to do it.”
When the Herman J. Russell West End Academy students walked into Paschal’s they were met with thunderous applause from restaurant staff and leaders from CI and were each handed a black Paschal’s uniform polo shirt and a name tag to don for the duration of the day’s event. To begin, the students gathered at the restaurant’s host stand for an introduction and pep talk from Briana Woodberry, culinary manager for CI and unit manager of Paschal’s. “Today while you’re here learning I want you to think about your ‘why’: ‘why am I here and what kind of impact do I want to have’?” she said. “I want you to ask questions, I want you to be attentive, I want you to think like owners, think like managers and think like entrepreneurs.”
From there, A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager took off, with a presentation from the restaurant’s host on how to greet customers with enthusiasm and hospitality; a tour of the kitchen with the kitchen manager on back-of-house operations, including a cooking demonstration; and demonstrations with front-of-house staff on serving customers. During all of these activities, students were invited to perform in mock scenarios to gain hands-on experience.
“We talk about a lot of things in our school and our students learn a lot from books and social media, but it’s nothing like having a real, live experience of actually doing it,” said Dr. Chendra Dupree, principal at Herman J. Russell West End Academy, adding that many of the students who participated in the program had expressed interest in cooking. “We’re always trying to captivate what the students want, what they’re interested in and what we think can benefit them,” she added. “I’m big on serving the whole child and so I’m very passionate about this experience and wholeheartedly support it.”
Following the training and informational sessions on front-of-house and back-of-house operations, the students were joined by two long-time Paschal’s servers for a lively discussion to learn more about the story and legacy behind the restaurant, specifically its connection to the Civil Rights Movement. During the sixties, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders frequently gathered at Paschal’s, earning it the designation as an unofficial headquarters of the movement.
“So, not only are the students learning about what it’s like to run a restaurant, they’re learning about history as well,” Russell Atkins said. “This experience so much more than just food and serving people, it’s preserving a legacy.”
The day’s event culminated in lunch for the students and an open discussion and Q&A with the restaurant’s staff, and each student received a certification of participation.
This is just the beginning for CI’s A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager program. Harland said that it is intended to be an annual event and as soon as later this year the program will expand to more cities with the ultimate goal of being in every major market that CI has a presence in. Just as the concessionaire has done with Paschal’s, CI will work with their concession partners to host the program at their streetside locations. Once the logistics are figured out, the program will be hosted in CI’s airport locations as well.
Harland added that while A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager will remain the core of the program, they plan to expand it into other hospitality roles, such as accounting, human resources and even CEO. “It’s really exciting for us,” she said.
Harland pointed out that while the aim of this program is to inspire students to pursue careers in hospitality and airport hospitality, it’s also about giving them transferrable skills they can take with them into any future career. “I would love for them to become managers at a restaurant or managers in an airport—that’s my goal—but if they just become leaders who know respect and just how to get stuff done, then we’re winning and we’re contributing to the greater good.”
