Akron students to take over NoHi Wednesday with culinary pop-up, art display
NoHi will feature the culinary and artistic talents of students from Akron Public Schools with a Creative and Culinary Arts Student Showcase from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at 778 S. Main St. in Akron's North Hill neighborhood.
Students from Buchtel Community Learning Center's culinary program will take over the kitchen with a pop-up menu and visual artwork by students at Jennings and North community learning centers will adorn the walls of the NoHi Cafe and lounge.
Customers can eat throughout the NoHi Cafe and lounge, as well as on the patio, weather permitting.
Seven Buchtel seniors under the direction of Holly Henderson and College and Careers Academy coach DeAnna Edwards also will receive assistance in the kitchen from folks from Totally Baked Kitchen and Irie Jamaican Kitchen, both of which hosted popups at NoHi before opening their own brick-and-mortar restaurants.
The Buchtel students' culinary pop-op is called The Griff Inn.
"We really want to celebrate these students and their hard work," said Justin Chenault, interim executive director for the North Hill Community Development Corp. (NHCDC).
For entrees, the students will offer a choice of smothered chicken thighs in onion gravy on a bed of jasmine rice with asparagus spears ($12), pan-seared salmon with brown butter mashed potatoes and asparagus spears ($13), or vegan Thai chickpea curry over jasmine rice ($10).
Sides include a Philly Soul Roll, two deep-fried rolls stuffed with marinated beef, pepper, onions and swiss cheese ($5); or a Reuben Soul Roll, two deep-fried rolls stuffed with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese ($5).
Featured desserts will be a mini strawberry cheesecake ($3) and banana pudding ($7).
Some 30 students led by Steve Beltrondo and Alexis Kittle from North High and Peyton Young, Candace Montalvo and College and Career coach Kennie Green from Jennings will have their artwork featured. Their 3-D and 2-D art, including ceramics, photos, paintings and pencil drawings, were installed at NoHi Sunday.
In other NoHi news, the commercial kitchen incubator run by the NHCDC in Akron, which prioritizes minority and women culinary entrepreneurs, is now running a revolving test kitchen six days a week.
More featured cuisine this week will be Thai by Nat from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday, Hideaway Cookhouse from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday and Cookie's BBQ from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday. For more information, see https://northhillcdc.org/nohi-pop-up.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: APS culinary, visual art students take over NoHi Pop-Up Wednesday
