Dee's Corner Cafe back open for business

Posted Oct. 28, 2021

By Nardin Ishak

Staff Editor

After a long-awaited return, Dee’s corner cafe has been back since Oct. 25, with a new and improved system to accommodate new Covid rules and procedures, with the same operating hours, and still their famous cookies along with all their other tasty food and drinks.

Dee’s will now be taking orders in the north building courtyard to keep customers socially distant in an open area. Customers can place their orders at the register in the courtyard during breakfast and during both lunches. After placing an order, customers will wait in a designated area in the courtyard with their receipt until a cafe staff member comes to exchange that receipt with their order. Customers will then be asked to leave with their order and eat in a designated area. Cafe workers will still cook in the same kitchen, but the window will not be put to use as of now.

¨We are just happy that we're back, so come and get food,¨ said Dee’s advisor Cole Samuel. ¨We hope to stay open, so please follow the rules and what is asked of you.¨

This new system, which is similar to a drive-through but without the cars, is very different from what students and staff are used to, but it was the only way the cafe could safely open during Covid. All customers, both students and staff, are asked to follow the strict Covid guidelines and procedures in order to help Dee's stay open and operating safely.

¨The biggest regulation is that all customers must wear their masks in line,” said returning cafe family member and shift manager Taj O'Malley. “They must also keep a three-foot distance between them and other customers waiting in line. We will have a couple of line managers every shift whose job is to make sure all of the customers in line are following these protocols.¨

Dee's Corner Cafe still offers the same menu, which includes hot and iced drinks, like latte, mocha, and hot chocolate, and special drinks, like flavored Red Bull, bottled drinks, and hot off the grill items, like the turkey melt and quesadilla. They also offer treats and snacks which include a variety of chips, Rice Krispies, and their famous, delicious cookies. The full menu of prices is available when ordering at the register.

The cafe currently has 35 Entrepreneurship student workers, with four returners from before Covid. This posed a bit of a challenge since all the new workers had to learn how the cafe operates—and also the new way it will operate under Covid.

¨It did make it harder to re-open because we had a huge turnover,¨ said Samuel. ¨We only have four returners so we had to train all the students everything, plus the Covid stuff as well.¨

Dee's Corner Cafe, previously The Scots Cafe, was established in 2014 by former Entrepreneurship teacher Jawanza Hadley. The new name was chosen in honor of former business department chair Denise Lisac, who passed away in 2017.

¨She was a great teacher and lady and we miss her a lot,¨ said Samuel.

In order to work at Dee's Corner Cafe, students are required to take Intro to Business and Marketing or Accounting, each a semester-long class. Then they have to apply to the cafe. If accepted after an interview with Samuel, students can add Entrepreneurship, the year long cafe class, to their schedule.

Dee's Cafe has been very active on social media since its return, engaging and posting pictures of the cafe members participating in Spirit Week, advertising the re-opening, and posting pictures from the celebration dinner of their re-opening which took place at Fogo De Chao in Portland. Dee's family/business dinner has been an established tradition since 2018. The dinner only happened in 2018 and 2019 and was put to a halt because of Covid, but the tradition returned this year. All announcements, upcoming deals, offers, and events can be found on the cafe's Instagram page, run by a cafe students, @deescornercafe. Their upcoming event is trick or treating at the cafe on Oct. 29, which is "Freaky Friday" spirit day. Students who participate and wear a costume to school can stop by the cafe to get a free treat.

Even though this year has presented quite a few challenges for the cafe, Samuel and all the cafe students have persevered and worked hard to re-open and to return a sense of normalcy and belonging to the school and its student body.

¨Have fun,¨ Samuel likes to remind his students.

¨I love working for Dee's Corner Cafe,¨ said O'Malley. ¨We have been working extremely hard to make Dee's work for the DDHS community this year, and I have had a great time trying to tackle all of the new challenges this year has brought.¨

¨It's been a long time since we've opened and our cafe family is very excited, which makes me smile,¨ said Samuel. ¨I just hope the student body enjoys this and understands that we are doing the best we can while having to follow health guidelines and Covid protocols.¨