GREEN — Something new is cooking in the culinary arts department of the Portage Lakes Career Center (PLCC), which provides training to high school students in the Coventry, Green, Manchester and Springfield school districts.

The vocational and technical school soon will open its own modern eatery — further allowing students to experience all aspects of the food service industry.

The Neon Lime — a student-operated restaurant — officially will open next month to patrons, offering a winter menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and entrées, with vegetarian and gluten-free options also available.

Located inside PLCC, The Neon Lime will enhance the school’s culinary arts program, helping students gain more practical industry experience as they prepare menus, cook in the kitchen, present the meals, serve the food to customers and more, said culinary arts instructor and chef Courtney Bennett.

“They are pretty pumped,” she said concerning her students’ feelings on officially showcasing The Neon Lime to the public soon, beginning at the fully booked “soft openings” this month. “They also have some nerves about getting started.”

PLCC Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator Krista Haubert said it has been a longstanding desire to return a restaurant to PLCC, which did have one about 20 years ago but was closed while the center underwent some changes.

“Most career centers have a restaurant as part of the training experience, and we feel it is an important part of the program,” she said.

When Bennett was hired for her position last summer, she shared in the vision to establish a culinary restaurant in PLCC as soon as possible, explained Haubert.

“She started planning right away to have the restaurant ready to open in January 2020,” she said.

As soon as Bennett began working for PLCC, she said she started brainstorming, considering possible themes and names for the restaurant.

“I started thinking about whimsical names and kept coming back to The Neon Lime. It is modern and fun, and it just stuck,” she said.

The Neon Lime is occupying the space used by the previous restaurant, Captains Quarters.

PLCC teamed up with Pavlis Construction to revamp the space for a new dinning experience, working about 10 weeks straight to get it ready to introduce to the public — with contemporary furnishings and lively artwork.

“The restaurant was constructed using a portion of PLCC’s General Fund, which is primarily supported by state subsidies and local taxes, much like any other lab/classroom space at PLCC,” Haubert said. “Sales revenue generated at The Neon Lime will be used to support the restaurant and the culinary arts program at PLCC.”

The official grand opening for The Neon Lime is Feb. 13, Bennett said.

She wants potential patrons to know that the restaurant “is not cafeteria-style dinning.”

“We are offering an actual, seated dining experience, and we are not just serving basic foods,” said Bennett.

The winter menu is offering, among other items, roasted chicken and noodle, and creamy potato and leek soups; apple pomegranate salad and winter harvest salad, containing butternut squash and bacon; a salmon, bacon, lettuce and sundried tomato sandwich; a roast beef and provolone, with fried onions, sandwich; and a fig and brie grilled cheese, with arugula, sandwich. Entrées on the winter menu include sage sausage stuffed pork roulade, with brown butter sautéed apples and a whipped butternut squash puree; braised beef pappardelle, with homemade pasta in a Bolognese sauce; and a grilled chicken and roasted vegetable quinoa bowl with walnut pesto.

Bennett said the senior culinary art students are responsible for developing the menus and will be serving the customers, while the juniors will be doing the food preparation work.

“Ultimately, it ties into what they have been learning,” she said.

After opening, the restaurant will serve customers on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Bennett said.

One of the reasons Thursday was selected as the day the restaurant will be open is because appointments also can be made on a Thursday with the school’s students in the cosmetology program, said Haubert.

“It would be neat for a client to get her hair done or a manicure and then come over to The Neon Lime for lunch after,” she said.

Reservations for the restaurant are encouraged and can be made by calling 330-896-TABL.

The Neon Lime can hold up to 44 patrons at one time, said Bennett.

On March 19, The Neon Lime will unveil the spring menu, she said.

PLCC enlisted the help of the educational facility’s visual design students to come up with an aesthetically pleasing menu for the new dining establishment, said Haubert.

Bennett is hoping to have the restaurant open two days a week next year, expanding on the department’s educational experiences for the 2020-21 juniors and seniors who are part of the culinary arts program.

Each year, the program can accept 24 juniors and 24 seniors, she said.

With The Neon Lime in place, the culinary arts instructor anticipates having the program reach maximum capacity next year.

On Feb. 10, current sophomore students will be able to tour the PLCC, including the new restaurant, as they consider their educational options for their junior year, said Haubert.

Bennett said PLCC’s culinary arts program prepares students to go on to pursue careers such as: sous chefs, pastry chefs, cruise line chefs, caterers, dietary aides, personal chefs and servers.

According to the school’s department information, students in the culinary arts program are taught skills in nutrition, safety and sanitation, restaurant operations, equipment operations, food preparation, line operation, food purchasing, proper food storage, customer satisfaction skills, communication skills and more.