A Conversation with Chad Houser
Chef Chad Houser talks the internship program at Cafe Momentum in Dallas and the holistic education and support it provides.
chef chad houser of cafe momentum |. photos; will blunt
How does the Café Momentum restaurant and internship program work?
[We’re] standing in a restaurant that's six and a half years old and it's been consistently ranked as one of the top restaurants in Dallas since the day we opened. And we take a lot of pride in that because it proves that the young men and women that comprise our entire staff, can and will rise to whatever level of expectation you set for them, as long as we're giving them the tools and resources to do so. We are a 12-month paid, post-release internship for young men and ladies exiting Dallas County Juvenile Department. So once they're released, they're all welcome.
Over the course of 12 months, they’ll work their way through every station in the restaurant. They’ll work pantry or garde manger and pastry, and then they’ll work sauté and grill. They’ll be a dishwasher, they’ll be a host or hostess, food runners, expo, busser, and server.
chef chad houser’s Bison Pastrami, Arugula, Demases Farms Tomato, Carraway Cream
What are the interns learning from this program?
We’re doing three things: Number one is they’re learning new life skills and social skills and they’re applying them to make environmental decisions. So the way in which you appropriately disagree with a fellow line cook when you’re trying to get food out for 15 tables at once is different than the way in which you appropriately disagree with a customer that sat down three minutes ago and has already complained they’ve waited 45 minutes.
The second thing we're learning is what their strengths are and what they're good at. We ran a special on Saturday night and we told the interns that whoever sells the most specials gets to order a free entrée. Typical restaurant gimmick. A young man named DJ sold us out of every single special we have in the restaurant the first 45 minutes we were open. He wasn't even waiting tables. He was a busser. It's a great example of a skill that he is honing in on that translates outside of this industry.
Third thing is they're learning what it means to be on a team. When you're washing dishes, if you don't get your job done, you literally affect the restaurant's ability to succeed. But we also highlight the fact that for them, it's the first time a lot of them that have teams actually rallied around them and said, I'm doing everything in my power to do my best job so that you can be able to do your best job, too.
What other services do you provide for Café Momentum interns?
We have a Community Services Center adjacent to the restaurant. We have an entire team of case managers that are doing things that a social worker would do. They’re addressing housing instability which affects 42 percent of our youth. They help [the interns] get government-issued IDs, help secure medical care, getting them to go get physicals and dental exams and vision exams, food insecurities, legal advocacy. We also have a staff psychologist. She provides services in the form of trauma care, group therapy, individual therapy, and she sometimes tackles couples therapy. We also have a group services coordinator, Sais Daniel. Her role is to help build a solid foundation for each young person once they leave the program. Our Community Services Center also just functions as a safe space.
interior of cafe momentum
How do you prepare the interns for what comes after Café Momentum?
On average, you will have two restarts in the program. So they’ll be here until they’re finally ready to make it through. So Sais focuses on things like resume writing, mock interviews, taking tours of different companies, and seeing behind-the-scenes so they can familiarize themselves with what different career paths look like; as well as things like financial literacy training and sex education to help round out their foundation. We put a big premium on education. 54 percent of the young people that enter this program have already dropped out of high school. I would argue that 45 out of the other 46 percent are completely disengaged. We worked diligently to get our kids enrolled in different schools around the county that actually worked with them, and then they would never show up because of public transportation, so we built our own high schools. Because of [our education manager’s] amazingness, 100 percent of our youth are either already graduated or in school with her every day, and one third have already enrolled in college. We talk about building an ecosystem of support so that we are holistically addressing issues and barriers that affect our young people’s ability to achieve their true potential.
