General Manager, The Mindful Café

Business Performance & Profitability

A major objective of this position is to materially improve the financial performance of the café.

Working with the owner and chef the General Manager will:

• Monitor sales labor costs food and beverage costs inventory waste spoilage and portion consistency.
• Understand which menu items and beverages sell well and contribute appropriately to margins.
• Identify opportunities to grow revenue customer frequency and average transaction size.
• Improve scheduling and labor efficiency without compromising service.
• Recommend appropriate pricing menu portion product or operational improvements for owner approval.
• Help grow catering private events and other appropriate revenue opportunities.
• Track agreed operating and financial measures and regularly communicate results and action plans to the owner.

The General Manager will not be expected to single-handedly guarantee profitability but will be expected to take ownership of the financial and operational factors within their control and demonstrate measurable improvement.

Coffee & Beverage Excellence

Coffee and beverages are an important part of The Mindful Café experience.

The General Manager should have meaningful coffee-shop or specialty-beverage experience and be able to develop a high-performing beverage operation.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining consistent preparation of espresso drinks coffee matcha chai and other hot and iced beverages.
• Ensuring proper milk steaming drink construction presentation and speed of service.
• Training and coaching employees on beverage preparation and bar workflow.
• Maintaining cleanliness and proper care of coffee equipment.
• Monitoring beverage inventory waste pricing and profitability.
• Continuously improving beverage quality and consistency.

Strong barista skills are highly preferred. A candidate who is not already highly proficient must have the ability and commitment to become fully trained.

Operations & Systems

The General Manager will oversee day-to-day café operations and create the systems needed for consistent execution.

This includes:

• Staffing and scheduling within approved labor budgets.
• Opening closing cleaning preparation and service procedures.
• Inventory ordering and routine vendor management.
• POS and cash-control procedures.
• Food safety sanitation and allergy/cross-contact protocols.
• Customer complaints and service recovery.
• Catering and private-event execution.
• Building and improving practical SOPs checklists and training systems.

The manager should continuously ask:What can we improve simplify standardize or do more efficiently

Team Leadership

This is a hands-on leadership role. The General Manager must be willing to make food prepare beverages take orders serve customers clean restock and work alongside the team when needed.

We want a leader who combineshigh standards with kindness and respect.

The manager will:

• Train coach and develop employees.
• Set clear expectations and hold people accountable.
• Address performance problems promptly and professionally.
• Resolve employee conflicts fairly and calmly.
• Cross-train employees and develop stronger team members into future leaders.
• Build a culture of hospitality teamwork initiative and responsibility.

Routine issues should be handled independently. The manager should also have the judgment to recognize when owner involvement is appropriate.

Required:

• Approximately5 years of restaurant café fast-casual or comparable food-service experience including at least3 years in a meaningful management role.
• Demonstrated responsibility for employees and daily operations.
• Experience scheduling labor managing inventory and ordering training employees and enforcing procedures.
• Working knowledge of food costs labor costs waste control margins and restaurant/café profitability.
• Strong customer-service and hospitality experience.
• Food-safety knowledge and appropriate certification or willingness to obtain certification promptly.
• Strong communication judgment organization problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills.
• Willingness to work hands-on in every front-of-house position.

Especially valuable experience:

• Specialty coffee or high-volume café operations.
• Organic or health-conscious food concepts.
• Well-run fast-casual quick-service franchise or multi-unit restaurant environments.
• Improving an underperforming operation.
• Building SOPs and repeatable operating systems.
• Catering private events and delivery platforms.
• Menu analysis and improving restaurant or café margins.

The General Manager and Chef are peer leaders with complementary responsibilities. The Chef leads culinary preparation and kitchen execution; the General Manager leads overall daily operations front-of-house performance staffing customer experience systems and business performance.

The General Manager will have meaningful authority over routine daily operations. Major employment decisions compensation significant purchases pricing major menu changes policies and overall business direction remain subject to owner approval.