Restaurant & Cafe Manager
RESTAURANT \& CAFÉ MANAGER
Location: Giffard Park, Milton Keynes
Business: The Game Changer Kitchen
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, predominantly daytime hours
Experience: Minimum 2 years’ restaurant management experience
THE ROLE
We’re looking for a Restaurant \& Café Manager who can genuinely take ownership of the day to day running of The Game Changer Kitchen.
We’re a very busy, high volume café with a strong reputation for exceptional brunch, lunch, coffee and cakes. We’ve spent the last seven years building our team, our customer base and our reputation, and we’re looking for someone who can help us take it to the next level.
This isn’t a role for someone who simply waits to be told what needs doing.
We need someone who sees a problem and finds a solution. Someone who notices the small things. Someone who comes to us with ideas, suggestions and ways we can improve.
Ultimately, we’re looking for someone who can take the day to day pressure away from the owner and run the restaurant as if it were their own.
You’ll be responsible for leading the front\-of\-house operation, managing the team, maintaining our standards, controlling costs and ensuring every customer receives the experience we’re known for.
And because we open early and close at 3pm, you can have something that’s pretty rare in hospitality: your evenings and most of your social life.
ABOUT YOU
We’re looking for someone who:
- Has solid restaurant management experience, ideally within a busy, high volume restaurant, café or brunch environment
- Has a minimum of 2 years’ management experience
- Is confident managing a team and isn’t afraid to have difficult conversations when necessary
- Leads from the front and sets the standard for everyone around them
- Has excellent attention to detail and genuinely cares about the small things
- Has initiative and doesn’t need to be constantly told what to do
- Is commercially minded and understands costings, GP, labour, profitability, wastage and ROI
- Understands that a successful restaurant isn’t just about great food, it’s about running a profitable business
- Is confident dealing with suppliers, ordering and stock control
- Has experience with EHO inspections and understands food safety, hygiene, allergens, health \& safety and compliance
- Is confident managing busy services and remains calm when things get hectic
- Has excellent customer service skills and genuinely enjoys looking after people
- Is confident using social media and understands how it can help drive awareness, bookings and sales
- Is naturally creative and enjoys coming up with new ideas
- Is confident enough to challenge existing systems and suggest better ways of doing things
- Is organised, proactive and forward\-thinking
- Ideally has barista/coffee experience and understands what makes great coffee
- Wants to grow with an independent business rather than simply turn up, run a shift and go home
We want you to become the person who knows the business inside out.
You’ll be expected to constantly look at how we operate and ask:
Can this be better?
Can we improve the customer journey?
Can we make service flow better?
Can we improve our systems?
Can we reduce wastage?
Can we improve our GP?
Can we increase sales?
Can we make the team’s job easier?
Can we create a better experience for our customers?
Can we make the business more profitable?
We want someone who brings those ideas to us, rather than waiting for us to identify every problem ourselves.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Day to day operations
- Take overall responsibility for the day\-to\-day running of the café/restaurant
- Lead the FOH operation and ensure service runs smoothly and efficiently
- Ensure customers receive consistently excellent food, drinks and service
- Monitor service flow, table turns, bookings and customer experience
- Identify problems quickly and take ownership of resolving them
- Maintain exceptionally high standards throughout the restaurant
- Lead, motivate and manage the FOH team
- Create effective rotas and manage staffing levels
- Recruit and train new team members
- Coach and develop existing staff
- Carry out reviews and address performance issues
- Set clear expectations and hold the team accountable
- Create a positive, professional and hardworking culture
- Understand and monitor sales, GP, labour costs and profitability
- Monitor wastage and identify opportunities to reduce costs
- Understand the financial impact of operational decisions
- Manage stock and ordering effectively
- Work with suppliers to ensure we are getting the best value
- Look for opportunities to increase revenue and improve ROI
- Take ownership of the commercial performance of the FOH operation
- Ensure the business consistently meets EHO, food safety, allergen and health \& safety requirements
- Maintain accurate records and daily checks
- Carry out regular quality control checks
- Ensure cleaning, opening and closing procedures are completed correctly
- Be confident and comfortable dealing with EHO inspections
- Make sure the entire team understands and follows our procedures
- Take ownership of customer experience
- Deal confidently with customer feedback and complaints
- Look for ways to improve the customer journey
- Work with the kitchen team on specials, promotions and new ideas
- Contribute ideas for events, drinks, promotions and experiences
- Have an understanding of social media and how it can support the business
- Help us continue to grow our reputation and customer base
Ownership.
We don’t want someone who says:
*“That’s not my job.”*
We want someone who says:
*“I’ve noticed this isn’t working. I’ve got an idea to fix it.”*
Someone who walks through the café and notices when something isn’t right.
Someone who cares whether the tables look perfect, whether the team are happy, whether the coffee is right, whether customers are being looked after and whether the business is making money.
Someone who can confidently make decisions without needing to ask about every little thing.
Someone who can manage the team, manage the operation and ultimately give the owner the confidence to step away from the day\-to\-day running of the business.
If you’re looking for a role where you can genuinely have an impact, bring your ideas to the table and become a key part of an independent business, we’d love to hear from you.
WHAT WE OFFER
- Predominantly daytime hours
- Wednesday to Sunday, approximately 8am to 4pm, the odd late afternoons when we have our private hires on a Saturday \& or sunday till 7pm.
- Café closes at 3pm, meaning your evenings are generally yours
- Occasional evening private events
- Free food and coffee while working
- 28 days holiday
- Christmas Day and Boxing Day off
- Free parking
- The opportunity to take real ownership of a well\-established, busy independent café
- The opportunity to make a genuine difference and help shape the future of the business
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
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