General Manager

About Us

Cream City Concepts is Milwaukee’s hospitality group built for the energy of a packed house. We run Oak Barrel Public House, Who’s on Third, Who’s on Layton, Cream City Catering, and 3rd Street Retreat — craft food, cold drinks, game days, date nights, big events, and a place to stay, all over the city. The pace is fast, the standards are high, and the people are what make it work.

About the Role

Oak Barrel Public House is a high-volume bar and restaurant where hospitality comes first and standards hold steady — especially on game days, event surges, and peak weekends. The General Manager is the operator of the building — a floor-first leader who delivers strong opens, smooth service, clean closes, and disciplined controls, leading side-by-side with the AGM, Service Manager, and kitchen leadership. Oak runs the highest event volume in the group, so the GM has a major impact on Cream City Catering and on every event held at Oak Barrel, partnering closely with the Catering & Events team. You embody Cream City Concepts’ mission and standards through daily execution — guest connection, team coaching, disciplined shift leadership, and brand protection — and you own the venue’s results.

Lead From the Floor

Arrive early and prepared. Plan, forecast, and adjust proactively to keep service smooth and teams aligned. Lead from the floor with structure, clear communication, and consistent follow-through — in it with the team during the rush, not hiding in the office. Coach with urgency and respect while holding the standard, and when you’re the most senior person in the building, it runs like an owner is there — because one is.

What We’re Hiring For

Skills can be taught. These five can’t — they’re the bar in every CCC venue, every shift.

• Optimistic Warmth — You set the tone for the entire building — positive, professional, and steady — and your team and your guests feel it.
• Curious Intelligence — You run on the numbers and the details — labor, COGS, prime cost, comps, P-mix — and you dig into root causes to lead with facts and fix what’s driving them.
• Work Ethic — You’re a floor-first operator — early, prepared, and in the rush with your team — and you carry the full operational and financial load behind it.
• Empathy — You build and develop leaders and take care of guests — you coach with urgency and respect, and you make the venue a place people want to work and return to.
• Self-Awareness & Integrity — You own the standards and the controls — cash, comps, pours, compliance, and audits — you run a clean, honest, inspection-ready operation, and you document and escalate the hard things.

What Success Looks Like

• Guest experience: fast, accurate service; effective recovery; a consistently clean and welcoming environment.
• People: stable staffing, strong retention, completed training, and clear performance accountability.
• Financial performance: disciplined labor, food COGS, and beverage COGS; controlled comps/voids; improved profitability.
• Operational rhythm: inspection-ready standards, consistent shift execution, clean closes, and tight cash controls.
• Leadership bench: capable leaders who run service without constant escalation.
• Bar identity: a curated whiskey list and consistent cocktail program, brand-aligned and built for profitable execution.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership, Staffing & Culture

• Recruit, hire, onboard, train, schedule, and performance-manage the FOH and BOH teams.
• Set clear standards and hold the team accountable through coaching, documentation, and consistent follow-through.
• Lead daily pre-shifts, manager huddles, and post-shift recaps; run structured manager and staff meetings with priorities, deadlines, and ownership.
• Build and maintain a strong leadership bench and succession plan, and keep an always-on hiring pipeline for critical roles.
• Own training standards and completion cadence — onboarding, station training, refreshers, and validation.

Manager-on-Duty Coverage & On-Call Ownership

• Own the MOD schedule and ensure leadership coverage for all operating hours, peak periods, and events.
• Serve as the escalation point for critical issues — guest incidents, staffing emergencies, facility failures, cash discrepancies — with same-day documentation and communication to ownership as needed.

Operations (FOH + BOH Execution)

• Own day-to-day operations for smooth service, strong communication, and consistent standards.
• Ensure SOPs are followed and improved — open/close, service standards, side-work, sanitation, and cash handling.
• Maintain a clean, safe, organized facility, and follow through on maintenance and vendor issues.
• Partner with kitchen leadership on quality, ticket-time discipline, and execution during rushes.

Menu Optimization (FOH / BOH Alignment)

• Partner with kitchen leadership to refine and streamline the food menu within the existing framework — brand-aligned, executable, and optimized for speed, consistency, and margin.
• Convert menu decisions into daily execution: station setup, prep pars, expo flow, ticket-time discipline, and staff training.

Guest Experience, Safety & Recovery

• Lead table touches and guest engagement, especially during peak volume.
• Resolve complaints quickly and professionally, and train leaders in de-escalation and recovery.
• Monitor guest feedback and online reputation, and execute corrective actions and service improvements.
• Ensure responsible service standards, support staff on refusals and safety escalations, and document and escalate incidents per policy.

Bar Program (Whiskey + Cocktails)

• Partner with the AGM to build, maintain, and evolve Oak Barrel’s whiskey list and cocktail program.
• Keep the program brand-aligned, operationally executable, and profitable — pricing discipline, specs and recipes, prep systems, and staff training.
• Track beverage performance — menu mix, features, slow movers — and adjust with intent.

Financial Ownership (Prime Cost + Controllables)

• Labor: build schedules to forecasted sales, deploy effectively, and control overtime and inefficiency.
• Food COGS: manage ordering, pars, waste, portioning, and variances; partner with BOH to reduce loss.
• Beverage COGS: enforce bar controls — pars, variances, theft prevention, and recipe/pour consistency.
• Comps / voids / discounts: enforce policy and approval discipline, investigate patterns, and coach accordingly.
• Cash handling: drawer controls, safe counts, deposits, and audit readiness.
• Controllables: monitor and reduce avoidable spend (maintenance, smallwares, disposables, linen, cleaning supplies, utilities and processing-fee awareness).
• Review weekly sales trends and P-mix, and execute action plans to drive revenue and margin.

Inventory, Receiving & Controls

• Maintain par levels and ordering systems that support service readiness without overstock.
• Verify invoices and receiving, investigate variances, and correct process breakdowns.
• Enforce proper storage, rotation, labeling, and cleanliness to reduce waste and loss.
• Run routine inventory controls on bar/liquor, high-theft items, and critical food categories, and take corrective action on variances.

Systems, KPIs, Admin & Reporting

• Own the operating cadence: daily checklists, weekly scorecards, and period-close readiness.
• Own and report core KPIs — labor %, food COGS %, beverage COGS %, prime cost, comp/void %, sales trends/P-mix, staffing/turnover, training completion, and guest feedback — with clear action plans.
• Drive adoption of company systems (e.g., Toast POS/reporting, 7shifts scheduling, TipHaus tip pooling, MarginEdge invoice/cost tools).
• Handle scheduling, timekeeping accuracy, invoice flow, and reporting, and communicate performance, staffing needs, and issues clearly to ownership.

Standards, Audits & Continuous Improvement

• Own a weekly internal audit cadence — cleanliness/organization, cash controls, comp/void discipline, bar variance checks, and service standards.
• Identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and sustain follow-through through training and accountability.

Facilities & Preventative Maintenance

• Own preventive maintenance routines and timely repair follow-up with vendors.
• Track and escalate recurring issues to protect guest experience and operational uptime.

Cream City Catering & Events

• Partner closely with the Catering & Events team on Cream City Catering and on every event held at Oak — from planning through execution and debrief.
• Provide the people, the floor, and the operational muscle that make events succeed — staffing plans, setups, timelines, service standards, guest flow, and team communication.
• Coordinate with the Executive Kitchen Manager and the Sales, Events & Marketing team so events are staffed, prepped, and executed at a level guests remember.
• Protect event profitability and the guest experience — right staffing, cost discipline, and smooth day-of execution.
• Join post-event debriefs and feed back operational follow-ups and improvements for future events.

Compliance & Brand Protection

• Ensure compliance with health codes, food handling, alcohol-service laws, and safety procedures, and keep the venue inspection-ready through training, audits, documentation, and corrective action.
• Protect confidential company information — recipes, pricing, operating procedures, financial performance, and internal standards.

Authority & Decision Rights

• Owns location-level decision-making within company policy and thresholds: hiring and corrective action, staffing and schedule execution, comp/void/discount approval discipline, cash controls, and purchasing and vendor follow-through.
• Escalates exceptions and high-risk decisions promptly to ownership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of GM (or senior operator) experience in a high-volume bar and/or restaurant.
• Strong working knowledge of both FOH and BOH operations.
• Proven ability to lead teams, build accountability, and improve performance.
• Demonstrated cost-control competency — labor, food COGS, beverage COGS, and comp/void discipline.
• Organized, calm under pressure, a strong communicator, and a consistent coach.
• Comfortable with tech systems — POS reporting, scheduling, tip tools, and inventory/cost platforms.
• ServSafe Manager certification and alcohol-compliance training preferred, or the ability to obtain both.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
• Full-time availability including evenings, weekends, and holidays, and peak cycles — game days, major events, and seasonal surges; schedule may vary week to week.
• Able to stand and walk for long periods and lift and move supplies as needed in a restaurant environment.

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive salary plus a performance bonus tied to KPI results (labor %, food and beverage COGS %, prime cost, comp/void discipline, and guest-experience metrics).
• Paid vacation.
• Simple IRA with company match.
• Health insurance reimbursement.
• Company cell phone plan.
• Free employee meals.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Cream City Concepts is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected class. This job description does not constitute a contract of employment. Employment remains at-will. Duties and responsibilities may change at any time based on business needs.

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