The Bistro is a hidden gem at the Vita Nova restaurant. The room itself is secluded from the Vita Nova dining room, which allows for the Bistro to take on a more casual flair. Not only are the dishes a smaller fare, but The Bistro is home to many student collaborations throughout the semester. Vita Nova is fortunate enough to collaborate with more than just the Hospitality Department in order to create amazing events. You can see art from the UD Art Program, hear UD Music students play, and also watch UD Theater students perform. The collaborations show just how many working parts go into making the Vita Nova magic happen. Vita Nova Live MusicThe Bistro is very lucky to have so many talented students go through its doors. Among those talented students are the UD Music Department. These students play their amazing music to accompany dinner, and surprise and delight guests with their talent. On March 11th, Jonathan Bergh and Jasmine graced us with their talents, and they blew the guests away with the music they produced. On March 17th, Stephanie Schrader, Tristan Leung, and Kati Lockwood played for our guests. On April 15th, UD's acclaimed Acapella group, Vocal Point, graced us with their presence. Our last musical event this semester will be by Frank Sokolovic, a bass player in the Symphony Orchestra on campus. Each Vita Nova Live continued to surprise and delight the guests in The Bistro. Ranging from Freshman to Upperclassmen, these students showed how much talent the University has to offer. Accompanied by one of our delicious entrees, there is little left to the imagination about what heaven must be like. Vita Nova Dinner and a ShowThe Bistro has teamed up with the University Harrington Theater Group to provide a dinner and a show! This Friday, the group performed a cabaret version of their upcoming April play at The Bistro. This play is all about dating in the 21st century, and even takes place in a restaurant named "The Bistro". The students did an amazing job, and the guests could not even tell the difference between Broadway and UD! If you go to the play, keep your eye out for Vita Nova's theatrical debut as it will be the restaurant featured in the play. Vita Nova Art OpeningThe Bistro has also collaborated with a UD Art major, Emily Tucci, to showcase her art on its walls. The Bistro also held her first Art Opening on March 22nd. Emily's art features African animals and helps to inspire people to consider wildlife conservation. Emily's opening had an amazing turn-out, and we are so happy to have featured her artwork this semester! As you can tell, Vita Nova's best kept secret is The Bistro. A host to many events, it bridges the gap between Hospitality and so many other organizations on campus. The next time you are wanting to try something new, come to The Bistro! It might be the closest thing to perfection you'll ever see!
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As you can tell from my last blog post, the students of Vita Nova are among the-best-of-the-best. These students spend long grueling hours together working to be a part of such an elaborate dining experience. As proud as the instructors are of their students, you can imagine that they are even prouder of the students that have matriculated and become Super Stars in the workforce. One of the best parts about Vita Nova is that the restaurant is always open to the alumni that wish to relive their "Glory Days" in the practicum. This semester, we were paid a visit by two alumni that are greatly missed! Samantha LaRosa and Kenny Meyers came to eat their first dinner back at Vita Nova as alumni students last Friday. Graduated in 2014, they have both gone on to do some special things in Hospitality! Samantha has been recently promoted to Property Manager in a Bozzuto Group property in New Jersey, and Kenny has also recently been promoted to General Manager of Home wood Suites right here on the UD campus! With not even being matriculated for two years, their promotions show just how talented the students that pass through Vita Nova are. Sam and Kenny also represent how close students in the Vita Nova lab become. After working as rotational partners in the Kitchen portion of lab, Sam and Kenny knew that there was something special about their relationship. Now, two years later, they celebrated the place that brought them together! Here at Vita Nova, we specialize in everything from nitro-churned ice cream to match making! We want to thank Sam and Kenny for paying us a visit, for showing off how great our alumni are, and for giving us our very own Vita Nova love story!
From reading this blog, you can tell that the students here at Vita Nova have a lot on their plates, and you saw first-hand as we followed Liz around last week for the day how intense it is to work at the restaurant. Don't get us wrong Vita Nova is a challenge, but with every challenge there is a finish line in sight. The students experience their first triumph this week when the time to switch from kitchen to service and from service to kitchen has come. The Mid-Semester role switch is the first mountain that these Vita Nova students have successfully climbed. Whether they were in the front of the house serving the guests or the back of the house making and preparing the delicious meals, they have spent half a semester mastering their craft. It is at this point that the Vita Nova team decides to give the students a role reversal and have them switch which part of the house they are in. This switch signifies that the students have perfected their current role, and that they are in for a whole new set of challenges for the rest of the semester. The Mid-Semester switch is just another way that the Vita Nova instructors make sure that the students that matriculate from the lab know every inner-working of a fine dining restaurant. By the time that they have mastered one of the aspects of the lab, it is time for them to grow even more and learn another aspect. This will leave them masters of both front and back of the house by the time the semester is over. Students become nostalgic about their past roles, and they become apprehensive about what is to come for them in the roles outside of their comfort zone. The first week of the switch, Vita Nova closes down for an entire day to do extensive training with the students so that they are comfortable in their new roles. When Vita Nova's door open the next day, the students are ready to take on the new challenges the role reversal brings. New waiters and waitresses will greet the guests, and new chefs will be perfecting Vita Nova's delicious menu. After going through Breakfast Lab, Lunch Lab, and two rounds of extensive training, our students are more than ready for the challenge. As you can see, Vita Nova has many moving parts. The students are constantly rotating into new positions, and even new territory. One student will be the head chef one night, and later in the semester be the dining room manager another night. This is what makes Vita Nova so special and so fresh after all this time. The stakes are high, the challenges are new, but our students are the best of the best. All in all, it's just another day of living La Vita Nova.
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The StudentsThe students of the Hospitality Business Management program at the University of Delaware share their experiences at Vita Nova Archives
November 2020
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