Washakie Dining- Front of House

This is the statue of Cheif Washakie in front of the dining center.

The front of house rotation was interesting; it really is a different view of Washakie. It was during this rotation that we got to really see how the service side and kitchen pull together. Here we had the chance to work with Tom in the office and learn about the scheduling and other operating information. During the week we rotated through both opening and closing of Washakie and had the chance to learn what the everyday procedures are. Luckily this was a busy week for Washakie due to Orientation groups walking through and the start of some large camps. During the first week we had not seen that many people go through the dining room, and this time we had the chance to see it in full swing. There were several stations open that we had not been able to see before and there was a lot of running around to do!

The two pictues above are of the main didning areas in Washakie. This dining center actually extends beyond this during the school year. This place is huge!

This is the main part of the Washakie Dining sitting area. There are two other areas but this is the main one they have open during the summer. Just to the left of this shot, outside, is the statue of Chief Washakie pictued above. 

A veiw of the salad bar looking out towards the entrance

I was glad we had the chance to work on the electronic menu and see the process of how they are able to change that. It is a fairly simple process, however, it is really important for both sides of the dining center to communicate to make sure that all of the items being served were correctly labeled and also under the right category. We did run into some issues where things were either not on the menu or not in the right spot. That’s alright though, it just gave Amy and I the chance to become more familiar with the system.

During service times with low numbers, employees are assigned stations as needed. After a few days of getting familiar with the service area we were given the task of assigning the employees. This was a great experience and a great chance to try to see if we could remember all the employee’s names! I have always had a rough time with remembering names, but luckily with Amy’s help we were able to just get through it and assign positions for people.

Here are the desserts that Amy and I arranged. I worked on the 'cookie tower'. It dosnt look like much in the picture, but trust me it's bigger in person.

Overall I had a really great time working at Washakie. The staff was welcoming and I feel like we learned a lot. Coming from a university run foodservice operation back at my home university and then seeing the differences and similarities between the University of Wyoming and Stout was interesting. I was glad to finally have the chance to see, and be a part of the management side and have the chance to learn and practice different management styles.

Post By: Sara Musselman