About this General Manager role at Arootah
The Mindful Café is an independent organic café offering thoughtfully prepared food, specialty coffee and tea, smoothies, baked goods, catering and private events. We combine high-quality ingredients and personal service with the warmth of a neighborhood café.
We are seeking an experienced, hands-on General Manager to lead daily operations, develop our team, strengthen our coffee and beverage program, improve operating systems and help move the café toward sustainable profitability.
This is not simply a shift-management position. We are looking for an experienced operator who understands both hospitality and the business of running a successful café.
What Success Looks Like
The General Manager will be responsible for five primary outcomes:
- Improve financial performance and move the café toward profitability.
- Deliver an exceptional customer experience, with coffee and beverages as a core part of the café.
- Build, train and lead a strong, accountable team.
- Create reliable systems so daily operations do not require constant owner involvement.
- Make the café increasingly efficient, consistent and repeatable while preserving its neighborhood character.
Key Responsibilities
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:
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:
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:
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 combines high standards with kindness and respect.
The manager will:
Routine issues should be handled independently. The manager should also have the judgment to recognize when owner involvement is appropriate.
Experience & Qualifications
Required:
Especially valuable experience:
Working With the Chef & Owner
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.
How to Apply
Please submit your résumé and briefly describe:
- The food-service operations you have managed.
- The size of the teams you have supervised.
- Your coffee/café experience.
- An example of how you improved the financial or operational performance of a restaurant, café or similar business.
Professional references will be requested.