Reservations for Spring 2013
Welcome to Our Place
When the Open Table link is visible above, the system is accepting reservations. When it is not visible, we are not.
All meals are on Wednesdays. Dinners are in the fall and Lunches are in the Spring semester with an additional three dinner dates held in the Spring.
Please read the information below to help you successfully make a reservation for your party.
How do I make a reservation?
At the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, the Open Table link allows guests to make reservations. We do not operate the dining room during the summer.
Tables become available to make reservations in late August to early September for fall and mid-January for spring semester. Once tables are released, they are available by table size. Thus, a table for two may not be available, but a table for six is- or vice versa. Full tables in a full dining room, create more practice for students and a greater ability to recover our food supply budget expenditures. The table inventory is as follows: 1 table seats 6-8, 4 tables seat 4-6, 7 tables seat 2-4 and 1 table seats 1-2. Parties of four have the best chance of finding an available table, parties of eight the least. Tables are designated by the time slot that they are assigned to- larger tables are typically available earlier as they take longer to complete the service cycle. The Open Table system time slots are do not exactly fit the scheduled time of our classes, so your search is for the approximate time slot range or ranges that you prefer.
Please be mindful if you are in a hurry to leave that these are students paying to learn,not paid employees. They are not always as able to rush as are employees selected for their experience and work skills and trained over a period of time. On the other hand, guests may "linger" for only so long before we must close in order to end the class at the scheduled time.
If all reservations are full you are invited to communicate your interest by filling out the wait list form. It can be found by scrolling down this page, should you care to. The form captures all the needed information to contact those who are willing to fill in should a cancellation occur.
The Open Table system is used by many commercial restaurants. We are training students in its use as part of the Dining Room Service course. This is a teaching tool for our students and timesaver for college employees. We have changed reservation software in order to better serve the needs of our guests.
In prior years, the volume of phone calls tied up our instructors and the college switchboard to a point where we were less available for our students. Diners must have an online reservation in order to be seated.
What Do I do if I need to change or cancel my reservation?
Please notify us as early as possible- we are not a "real" restaurant and are operating this class/lab with tax dollars. Food is ordered Friday morning and students are assigned to cook and serve. No show guests waste public funds and rob students of the ability to have the learning experience that they are paying for and is the function of the classes. Instructors are primarily in classroom settings and have limited windows of time in which to email and telephone wait list guests when cancellations or real changes are too last minute. Please make your reservation with the intention of honoring it as made! We appreciate your helpfulness in this regard. In extreme cases, where guests have been absent more than once, we have been forced to disallow future reservations.
Why is it so hard to get a table?
Our dining room operates as a learning laboratory for students in our Dining Room Service and Culinary production classes; Classical or International and American Regional Cuisine. Due to our curriculum requirements, enrollment in other required courses and our desire not to operate in competition with local restaurants employing our students, we are only "open" to invite the public to "come to class" one meal per week; dinner in the fall semester and lunch in the spring. Our students pay for the class and are entitled to leave when class is over. Each table is "sat" only once in order to start and finish on time. Some students have a class following this one or are scheduled for work at paying jobs. We are grateful for the interest and enthusiasm about our students and in our programs.
Our Hospitality students in the second year Restaurant Management class in conjunction with the first year advanced Culinary class will put on three Wednesday dinners in the spring semester.
When is the dining room open to the public?
We are open on Wednesdays only. In the fall, our Classical Cuisine class prepares dinner and in the spring our International and American Regional Cuisine class prepares lunch. We are "open" about twelve times each semester as indicated on by our online reservations link. A few of those twelve times, we are closed to the general public as we are serving private parties of college donors or board members in thanks for their generosity. The reservation link will activate for Fall dinners in September and for lunch in January -please keep checking Open Table for availability and the top of this page for an indication that tables have been released. We will only accept reservations made online. Thank you for making use of our new teaching tool!
Our Place Spring schedule:
(Subject to change due to product availabilty and/or instructional needs)
Date/Availability/Menu#
January 23 Louisiana
January 30 China
February 6 Mexico
February 13 Closed for Private Function
March 6 North Africa
March 20 United Kingdom
March 27 Italy
April 3 Greece
April 10 Latin Southern
April 17 Student Menu
Restaurant Management Class Bluewater Upstairs Banquet Facility Fundraising Dinner- Reservations taken by Bluewater Restaurant- $35.00 per person includes three course meal with two glasses of wine and three choices of entree. Live music by CFCC student in Music Program. Dinner will be Wednesday, April 24th
Fall Dinner reservation time choices are 6:00, 6:15 and 6:30
Spring Dinner reservation time choices are later. spring dinners created by HRM 215 Hospitality Management Students and produced by CUL 240 SKills II students will be March 6th and 2oth with a private UNCW Wine Society Dinner March 27th.
Lunch reservation time choices are: 11:45, 12:15 and 12:30
The Open Table system is not tuned exactly to our times but may be used with the range of time choices on their systems.
Do you keep a waiting list?
We do maintain a waiting list for reservations. In the event of a cancelation the next customer on the list will be contacted and offered the available seating. If you would like to add your party to the waiting list you can complete the online waiting list form.
May I reserve the entire room for my group?
Groups wishing to learn more about ways they can support Cape Fear Community College students may contact the college Foundation. They direct us in closing the Dining Room to the general public to serve a private party
