By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

With nearly one semester under its belt, the Pines Café continues to amass three times the business expected as officials look for opportunities to continue providing culinary goods to the community heading into winter and, soon enough, summer.

The Pines Café, an interactive teaching cafe developed by Worcester Technical High School’s Culinary and Pastry Arts Department, opened its doors last September. It offers baked goods, sandwiches, soups, and salads prepared by WTHS students to patients, staff, and Ocean Pines residents.

The shop, situated between the main lobby and the pharmacy in building number one of the Ocean Pines TidalHealth Campus near the community’s North Gate Entrance, is now looking at developments to ease operations as culinary and pastry arts program head chef Phil Cropper said the initiative brings in more patrons than anticipated.

“It has been three times busier than I thought it would be from the conception, which is amazing,” he noted. “We have had a ton of community support. We have had a ton of support from TidalHealth.”

As with any new venture, the bustle of customers and the fact that the café is an educational operation that heavily relies on student assistance have produced some growing pains Cropper hopes to amend, especially leading into summer. One solution could be the purchase of a transit van to carry the items to the Ocean Pines location.

The food prepared at WTHS to be sold at the shop is currently transported by Cropper in his car, with health department approval. The director said that he and the young learners pack the products in coolers, cover them with ice, and load them in the vehicle to be driven to the café. The high temperatures and declining student help will make this routine difficult as summer approaches.

Cropper said purchasing a small used transit van with a refrigerator unit would improve transportation from WTHS to the shop during the warmer months when school is out of session. The chef added that he is waiting on a quote from Hertrich and has a meeting this week with the executive team for the school board to discuss his plans.

The purchase is still up in the year, and a fundraising initiative for the potential vehicle may or may not be needed.

“I am looking at possibly getting a used van because we don’t need anything brand new; we just need something that’s low mileage and works,” he said. “Maybe if I could get low enough payments [on the van], we could do payments through the Pines Café monthly, so then if I’m paying $400, give or take a month, for a van, we might not need to do fundraising…but if I need to pay $20,000 out of pocket up front, I do not want to take what little money we set aside to cover payroll in case of a rainy day, and spend it all on a van. It is all very loose.”

Cropper is also looking to hire around two student workers over the summer to prepare items for the Pines Café in the Worcester Tech kitchen. Currently, 90% of the preparation for the TidalHealth shop is done at WTHS by the culinary baking and pastry classes and transported to Ocean Pines. At the same time, a smaller group of students handle the daily onsite operations at the store.

This system will be modified when the café remains open but the break starts. Some food will be made at the school and some at the shop, and additional costs may be incurred to cover the extra paid help to work at WTHS.

 “I think I’ll have to bring on two additional students for that in the summer, which is a win-win because it will give the students from Snow Hill and Pocomoke, the lower end of the county, who struggle finding a job, a job, and some income, and they’ll be learning,” Cropper said. “That part of it is great, but now I’m covering the payroll of six students instead of four.”

Cropper and his students have slightly altered the store’s menu, switching up items as the seasons change and adding new products based on customer preferences. While the most popular item, chicken salad, will remain, of which Cropper said they sell between 160 to 180 pounds weekly, a Caesar salad for winter will replace the Greek salad. They have also included egg salad, a soup and sandwich combo, and gluten-free rice bowls.

“Many of our customers are asking for dietary, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, and low sodium because we are in the middle of a medical complex,” the culinary program director said. “We are trying to do our best to listen to what the customers are asking for and help them with that.”

The project has proven to be an educational experience for the students, so much so that Cropper nominated student Nicholas Zlotorzynski, who has played a significant role in the initiative, as the Restaurant Association of Maryland Student of the Year Award.

Cropper said that the organization was looking for students, and he wrote an essay on Zlotorzynski, throwing his hat in the ring. The young chef was recently emailed to let him know that he is in the final run for recognition and will be notified on Jan. 23 if he is selected as the winner.

Cropper is also on the shortlist for the same group’s Educator of the Year Award and will know if he is chosen as the honoree on Jan. 20. The Restaurant Association of Maryland’s annual gala will be held at the Ocean City Convention Center this March.

Cropper hopes the shop will see even more business as the temperature heats up and summer begins.

“Hopefully, going into the summer months, our business will even go up higher because Ocean City and Ocean Pines are more full,” he said. “We’re hoping people come in and get sandwiches and salads and carry out for the beach and the pool…We’re very grateful for the support we have gotten. It’s been bigger and better than I ever thought it could be… As a teacher, I have big ideas. It’ll be interesting to see how [the café] evolves.”