The Boogie Woogie Café, a breakfast-only restaurant run by Westerly Middle School's family and consumer science students, is halfway through its delicious, yet educational run.

The force behind the café is teacher Jackie Serra, who has operated the unique educational enterprise with her middle school students for the past five years.

"I go over all the rules and regulations for working in the state of Rhode Island," Serra explained. She also feeds her students a dose of real-world experience.

"We fill out applications," said seventh-grader Brianna Lord, who was serving as an escort on the café's first day of operations. Her job, for which she had applied, was to greet the customers after signing in at the main office, and guide them to the restaurant in room C209. Sharing responsibilities with her that day was classmate Elizabeth McLeod.

Once at the café, run that first day by a class of seventh-graders, record-keeper Tegan Brown was logging customers' names and signing them in and out so that everyone could be accounted for in the event the building was evacuated.

Serra said she asks each applicant to give her the names of two non-related adults as references. The students must ask each person for permission first, and Serra does check a few references at random to see if her students complied.

Once brought to one of the eight tables by the courteous staff, customers sit at proper place settings decorated with handmade, laminated placemats.

The bustling staff wore color-coded aprons and was easily identified. The servers were in blue, busboys and -girls were in yellow, dishwashers wore green, and the kitchen staff wore red.

The menu was a combination of old favorites and new items. Serra said she uses the menu planning to teach about good nutrition. For example, this year she replaced the regular English muffin with a whole-grain variety, and substituted the regular bacon with lower-fat Canadian bacon.

Clothing was another part of Serra's serving of real-world experience. "They also have to dress appropriately," Serra said. No shorts, jeans, sandals or midriff shirts are allowed. Students who do not wear proper attire are not allowed to participate.

Once a customer is finished with breakfast, the server adds up the bill for the customer to bring to the cashier. On this day, John Ferraro was manning the register, taking in money and making change. Ferraro had applied for the cashier position, in part because he said he likes math.

All of the net profit housed in Ferraro's till would be going to an as-yet-unnamed charity. Serra said last year's café was able to donate $2,500 to two local charities. The funds always stay in the community, but Serra said this year they may consider a donation to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But of course, the real measure of any restaurant is the customer critique. Paul Silva of Ashaway said the restaurant was "wonderful," and that the "students are very courteous."

McLeod's mother, Claudia, also come to dine that morning. She said McLeod is the second of her children to work at the café, and that "it's a great experience."

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