Lead Host

Lead Host / Maître d’

Red Hook Barrel Yard – Brooklyn, NY

Red Hook Barrel Yard is looking for an experienced, polished, and hospitality-driven Lead Host / Maître d’ to take ownership of our front door and reservations operation.

This is not an entry-level host position. We are looking for someone who has run a busy door before , understands the rhythm of high-volume service, and knows how to balance reservations, walk-ins, wait times, table turns, and guest expectations while maintaining a warm and welcoming presence.

Our ideal candidate comes from a high-volume casual fine dining restaurant, bar, or hospitality-driven venue and genuinely has hospitality in their blood. You should enjoy being the first and last impression of the restaurant and understand that great hospitality begins before a guest ever reaches their table.

• Previous Lead Host, Maître d’, or senior host experience required
• Experience managing a high-volume restaurant door
• Strong working knowledge of Tock and/or Resy required
• Excellent understanding of reservation management, pacing, table turns, waitlists, and walk-in strategy
• Ability to read the room and make smart decisions in real time during extremely busy services
• Confident managing large parties, VIPs, special requests, and challenging guest situations
• Warm, polished, professional, and naturally hospitable
• Strong communication skills with guests, servers, bartenders, managers, and the kitchen
• Comfortable directing and developing a host team
• Highly organized and detail-oriented
• Able to remain calm, gracious, and in control when the door gets busy
• Weekend and evening availability required

The Lead Host / Maître d’ will take a leadership role in managing the guest experience from arrival through seating. You will work closely with management and the service team to ensure the reservation book is properly paced, tables are being utilized intelligently, and communication between the door and the floor remains seamless.

You will also help establish and maintain strong host-stand systems, train newer hosts, maintain guest notes and reservation details, recognize regulars and VIPs, and help us continue raising the level of hospitality throughout the Barrel Yard.

Red Hook Barrel Yard is a unique hospitality destination bringing together a winery, cidery, distillery, food, cocktails, live events, and multiple hospitality spaces under one roof. We operate at significant volume, particularly on weekends and during special events, while continuing to push toward a higher level of service and hospitality.

We are looking for someone who wants to own the door , become an important part of our leadership team, and grow with an expanding hospitality operation.

If you are the type of person who remembers a guest’s name, notices when someone has been waiting too long, can reorganize a reservation book on the fly, and genuinely enjoys making people feel taken care of, we’d love to meet you.