Welcome to Pj’s Restaurant in the Atrium! Pj’s is a unique little restaurant at the University of Guelph that is planned, managed and executed by students. You can think of Pj’s as a ‘Food Service Simulator.’ Pj’s lunch service is actually an experiential learning lab for our students to gather real knowledge about how food service systems run.

In the first half of this course, students are trained in all positions of restaurant operations including serving, bartending/barista, hosting, dishwashing, and cooking. In the second half of the course, students exercise menu planning, marketing, and purchase ordering skills to execute their own themed restaurant that they manage (which you are attending today).

In this course, the instructor is used as a resource instead of a decision maker. They are there to react, critique, and assist with the planning and execution, instead of intervening.

One thing that is not simulated at Pj’s is guest experience. Our students are some of the most hospitable around and are excited to demonstrate the skills they’ve learned to you. However, as in any teaching lab, mistakes can occur. While we hope these mistakes are rare, they are also important learning opportunity. When a problem does arise, you can help our students learn by kindly letting your server or student manager know so it can be corrected. Additionally, you are encouraged to fill out our feedback survey to help our students improve, or offer words of encouragement