Not too long ago, the co-managers of Espresso Roma Café
were worried about a lot more than passing their health and safety
inspections. They had other kinds of grades to keep up.
In all the attention paid to Roma Café this year, few have
noted the ages of the Café’s supervisors. At the age of
24, Michael Molnar, a University of California, Santa Barbara
dramatic arts and English graduate, has managed Roma Café for
nearly two years now. He shares his veteran wisdom with his
even-younger counterpart, 20-year-old Jason Hood.
Hood, a high school graduate from Sacramento, was added to the
Roma Café team about six months ago when restaurant owner
Sandy Boyd deemed that a “second pair of eyes” was
necessary to keep the restaurant’s struggling health and
safety rating up to standards and help run a café as large as
UCLA’s branch.
“We’re one of the largest Espresso Roma Cafés
in the chain,” Molnar said.
The café handles catering, concessions and bar services to
Royce Hall.
“We’re not just a coffee shop, so we need the most
managers,” Molnar said.
Both Molnar and Hood have previous experience working with
Espresso Roma Cafés on other UC campuses. Although
they’ve never co-managed anything until now, neither can
imagine a more effective partnership.
“Mike has what I lack and I have what he lacks, so we make
a really good team,” Hood said.
Molnar said before Hood came on board, he had little support and
was just doing his best to keep the café alive day-to-day,
particularly after Roma Café’s first closure back in
August.
“Now that Jason’s with me, we actually have time to
fix stuff and improve things within our staff,” Molnar
said.
Roma Café has about 30 employees total, and many of them
are older than Molnar.
“It kind of feels like telling your mother what to do in a
way, but I had to get past that in order to earn (the
employees’) respect,” Hood said.
Molnar and Hood admit to playing good cop/bad cop,
respectively.
“When I ask someone to do something, it’s with a
smile on my face. And if they don’t do it, Jason comes up
later grimacing,” Molnar said.
Twenty-year-old Kanesha Butler, an Espresso Roma Café
employee for about three years, has worked under at least five
other supervisors. She said Hood and Molnar are the best managers
she’s had so far.
“I can relate to them better because they’re my
age,” Butler said.
Hood said relating to employees his same age is not the only
advantage to being 20 and holding a management position.
“You gain experience and life skills, and it teaches you
how to deal with people in the real world,” he said.
“I learn things that I can tell my friends who are still
in school,” he added.
The obvious disadvantage, both managers agreed, is the lack of
respect sometimes shown to them.
“Overcoming youth is always going to be a problem … so
in our situation, we just have to prove ourselves,” Molnar
said.
Proving themselves in order to improve business has been
difficult for Molnar and Hood this year. Roma Café has been
shut down twice by the California Department of Health Services,
Food and Drug Branch. The first time was for cockroach-related
issues within the kitchen and the second was for rodent feces found
in the UCLA electrical room connected to the café.
In both instances, food kept out of temperature and food stored
on the floor were among the other violations resulting in C
ratings.
Roma Café has since paid to have another inspection and
raised their rating to an A. Molnar and Hood said they believe in
their current grade.
Customers still eat at Roma Café pretty frequently and seem
to be unaware of its past problems.
“I come to Roma because it’s so clean compared to
other places and has a better atmosphere overall,” said
Christine Charvet, a third-year anthropology student.
Hood says he’s been trying to boost consumer confidence by
getting to know customers like Charvet and the people in Anderson;
he awaits Roma Café’s next inspection as well.
“We’ve been fixing the problems and improving the
service ever since Roma Café’s first closure and C
grade,” Molnar said.
The café’s employees have been entirely retrained,
Molnar said, because maintaining their current rating is
imperative, not only for the managers’ reputations, but for
all of their livelihoods.
“All of our paychecks rely on us establishing a healthy
environment, so when I ask an employee to do something, they know
it’s for the best,” Hood said.
Both managers confess to working double-duty lately. Molnar
makes checks throughout the day while Hood admits to coming in
nightly to do inspections, pulling things out and crawling under
tables.
“We’re keeping our health standards now, no matter
what,” Molnar affirmed.
All the while, the co-managers work up-front during the lunch
rush, trying to keep the customers’ waits in line as brief as
possible.
Customers like Charvet are grateful for this dedication to
customer service.
“When I’m at Roma, it’s busy and the managers
are at the counter getting me my food,” she said.
In spite of their elevated attempts, Hood knows that Espresso
Roma Café still has some work to do.
“It’s really nice to work on a campus since we are
so young. We have intellectually-minded customers with lively
attitudes,” Molnar said.