News release from IPFW:
IPFW students bring traditional German street food to Fort Wayne with Gera Haus
(September 29, 2015) — Seniors in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) begin serving up authentic German street food today at Gera Haus, this semester’s student-run restaurant.
Gera Haus will operate in the Holiday Inn at 4111 Paul Shafer Drive off of Coliseum Boulevard. It will be open on Tuesday evenings from 5 to 10 p.m., today (September 29) through December 15.
Operating the restaurant is a capstone graduation requirement for Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) students in the Advanced Food Service Management course. The course gives students valuable experience with every aspect of restaurant operation.
“This course is a bridge between the students’ more formal education and real-world managerial challenges,” said John Niser, chair of HTM and under whose supervision Gera Haus operates. “Successfully opening and operating a restaurant is a cross-disciplinary exercise that requires students to apply and demonstrate a wide range of operational, financial, and managerial skills.”
The students this semester chose the name Gera Haus to celebrate the sister-city relationship between Fort Wayne and Gera, Germany, a city of about 115,000 people 150 miles south of Berlin. Last semester’s students ran the popular Plock Tavern, featuring Polish cuisine to honor another of Fort Wayne’s sister-cities, Plock, Poland.
Alex Smith, the student general manager of the restaurant, said that street food is rising in popularity in cities like Gera across Europe. Gera Haus aims to combine that trend with the surge in the number and profitability of food trucks in the United States by bringing that style indoors.
“We decided to serve food-truck-style food and classic dishes to create an atmosphere of adventure and fun, much like you find when you visit a food truck,” he said.
Reservations are recommended. To make a reservation, call the Holiday Inn at 260-482-3800.
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