Metro State student Kelsey Medeiros had no idea a new hotel job last summer would completely alter the course of her career.
But Medeiros, who originally came to Denver to study event planning, now wears a chef’s coat and works alongside culinary professionals at the new
on the Metropolitan State University of Denver campus.
“I was just doing the easy stuff like restocking the breakfast buffet, but once (chefs) saw my progress, they said, ‘I want you to start working with me in the kitchen,’ ” she said. “I’m now learning everything from making recipes to learning how to prep meat. … My only kind of cooking before was extensive pastas, and marinating a steak for six hours was the biggest thing I would do.”
Degree, 1190 Auraria Pkwy., sits adjacent to the , the hotel where .
The restaurant space was previously a student-run cafe that was only open at lunch a few days a week. It wasn’t profitable and it didn’t offer students the chaotic, full-bore experience of a packed house.
Denver-based Sage Hospitality, which also manages the Springhill Suites, collaborated with Metro to take over management of the space.
Medeiros is one of 65 students in the school’s hospitality, tourism and events program who now rotate through several positions at Degree: They work the front of the house, wait tables and create dishes in the kitchen, all under the tutelage of Metro instructors and Degree’s executive chef, Dan Hyman.
“They take what they get in the book on Monday, and then the following day, they get to come into the restaurant and actually practice it,” Hyman said. “So even though they’re green, we literally have them cooking on the line, calling out tickets.”
This serves another purpose for Denver’s restaurant scene: “We’re actually trying to put them back into our pipeline,” Hyman said, “to create the next generation of cooks going back into the city.”
The — locally sourced, globally inspired, with house-made pickled everything. (“I’m a pickling fool,” Hyman said.) A glorious “bacon jam” tops the house Angus burger, and the chicken confit Colorado Drunken Noodles is a must-try.
It all adds up to some tasty dreams for Medeiros, who will complete her degree in about two years.
“I would love to have a restaurant that I can call my own and put my name on — that would be my ultimate goal,” she said. “My life has just turned around.”
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or @LauraKeeney
Degree Metropolitan Food + Drink
The restaurant is open 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and the full bar — with 20 Colorado beers,16 wines and custom cocktails — stays open until midnight every day but Sunday.
