The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, the training ground behind Las Vegas’ massive hospitality industry, has opened a student-run coffee shop.
The school hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday for the new 710 Coffee Bar — named after the academy’s location at 710 W. Lake Mead Blvd. in North Las Vegas — which is operated by students and provides aspiring hospitality professionals with practical experience in coffee preparation, guest services and daily business operations.
“Today was so important, not only for our students, but to present what we can do for our community,” said Bobbi Damrow, chief executive officer of the academy. “When you look at the Historic Westside, there’s not a lot of places for dining or for coffee. This is one of them. For folks to be able to come in, and not only have delicious food at reasonable prices, but be a part of the training for the Las Vegas hospitality industry.”
The 710 Coffee Bar is adjacent to the academy’s Westside Bistro, a student-run restaurant. It is open to the public Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., while the restaurant runs on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The academy created the coffee shop in response to a growing demand for trained baristas and coffee professionals throughout Southern Nevada, Damrow said.
Jerome Davis, 35, is now one of those professionals.
He led a nontraditional “coffee toast” at the ceremony celebrating his graduation from the academy’s three-week barista program, which fell on the same day as the opening of the coffee shop.
The barista program prepares students for barista roles in quick-service environments by teaching them coffee and espresso preparation, point of sale systems, customer service and food-safety standards required by the Southern Nevada Health District. The tuition costs $1,500.
“It blew my mind that I got this much training in a short amount of time and that little money,” Davis said. “It’s going to boost the rest of my career.”
He plans on opening a mobile coffee shop in November that will travel across Las Vegas.
Since the academy was founded in 1993, it has trained more than 65,000 students across three hospitality departments: food and beverage, housekeeping and kitchen.
Historically, of the students that have enrolled in one of the academy’s programs — 16 are offered in 2026 — 87 percent have graduated and 88 percent have found a job.
“While our mission is to relevantly skill people for the industry, our vision is much broader,” Damrow said. “It is to bring people out of poverty. And if they’re underemployed, unemployed, facing different challenges, the broadest brush we can place is to meet these people at the door and give them hope. Then, give them skills and know they’re supported.”
The academy has 53 employer partners for job placement opportunities and mutually beneficial training, a list that includes many of Las Vegas’ hospitality powerhouses.
Also inside the academy’s 55,000-square-foot facility is its housekeeping wing, a hallway lined with replica guest rooms modeled after several of the Strip’s most prominent hotel-casinos gives students a realistic setting to practice housekeeping.
For Friday’s ceremony, the academy had guests of its own, such as locals Bruce Barrett and Adair Cantor.
“We saw something that announced there was an opening, and we thought it would be nice to come by and support it,” Barrett said. “But what we found was very surprising. A complete and amazing facility that helps people turn their lives around. And that was pretty impressive.”
Cantor shared Barrett’s enthusiasm for the academy.
“It’s a hands-on place,” Cantor said. “Gives the students confidence to go out and do a job because they know how to do it. And that is huge. Any employer would love to have someone who hits the ground running.”
