A fine-dining experience

Start with the utensils on the outside and work your way in. Keep your elbows off the table. And by all means, if you have something stuck in your teeth, excuse yourself.

These were some of the lessons taught to 16 middle-school-aged children who put on their nicest clothes and sat down to a meal Monday at Mollie's Cafe and Bar on South Spanish Street in Cape Girardeau.

The students were promised a four-course meal, but to earn it they had to pass a crash-course in etiquette taught by Quantella Anderson-Noto, the restaurant owner and director of Southeast Missouri State University's hospitality management program.

"As you get older and start applying for jobs and being interviewed, a lot of times the employer takes you out for dinner," Anderson-Noto told the students."The job interview is stressful enough. I don't want you to have to worry about, 'Am I using the right fork? Is this the right knife?"

After Monday they won't need to worry. Anderson-Noto taught the children the polite way to butter their bread, gave them tips on pacing themselves while eating and even told them the right amount to tip (20 percent is now standard, she said).

The students are in the Smart Moves after-school program offered at the Boys and Girls Program of Cape Girardeau. Smart Moves is designed to teach 6- to 15-year-olds self-esteem, conflict resolution and decision-making skills. Each earned the trip to Mollie's by writing a Black History Month essay about someone who has inspired them. The contest is sponsored by the Southside Optimist Club.

Michael Anderson, 14, wrote his essay on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said he feels more at ease after the lesson in fine dining. "If I went out to a nice restaurant, I'd be nervous, just panicking thinking I didn't know what to do and worried about forgetting things," he said.

Anderson said the top rule he'll take away from Anderson-Noto's instruction is to keep his elbows off the table.

Darren LaFrance, 14, hopes to use the skills at a business lunch someday. "If you want to make a good impression on people, you gotta learn these things. That helps you to be comfortable sitting at a restaurant," he said. LaFrance wrote his essay about the staff at Smart Moves.

Anderson-Noto encouraged the children not only to eat in a refined way but also to expand their horizons and tastes."Try Japanese food, try Indian food, don't be afraid to try new experiences," she said.

She believes the etiquette classes are particularly important for children who are not exposed to fine dining at an early age and later feel intimidated by it.

Noto got the idea in part by an acquaintance of hers who felt intimidated eating at Mollie's. "This person felt there were rules and that she didn't know them, so she couldn't come here and dine," she said.

Anderson-Noto began waiting tables at age 15 and has been in the business for 30 years. She describes herself and other restaurant entrepreneurs as "foodies."

NaTika Rowles, executive director of the Boy & Girls Club of Cape Girardeau and Southside Optimist Club president, hopes the meal inspires some of the children."I want them to realize that fine dining isn't only for doctors and businessmen and mayors. Hopefully they take away from this that they're no different from everybody else, and for the rest of their lives they can say, 'Mollie's, yeah, I've eaten there,'" she said.

Rowles also hopes the children aspire to own a business like Anderson-Noto. "She's another person in Cape Girardeau for them to look up to. She's a good, positive role model," she said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

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