Restaurant General Manager

Café Vivant is an independent Silicon Valley restaurant built around Northern California's seasons, exceptional poultry, and one of North America's most ambitious wine programs.

We're looking for a General Manager to lead the front-of-house organization.

Working in close partnership with ownership and our Executive Chef, the General Manager is the senior operational leader of the dining room. This is a collaborative position, but there should never be any ambiguity about leadership within the front of house. The General Manager establishes standards and bears ultimate responsibility for the preparation, execution, and continual improvement of the restaurant's operations.

Café Vivant opened nine months ago with a clear vision. Since then we've refined our food, strengthened our wine program, assembled an exceptional culinary team, and continued to define the kind of restaurant we want to become.

We're now entering the next stage of that evolution.

Increasingly, the future of Café Vivant is rooted in structure: disciplined preparation, thoughtful systems, consistent management, and an organization that improves deliberately over time. Ownership and our Executive Chef are deeply aligned around that vision. We're looking for a General Manager who shares it and is excited by the opportunity to help shape the restaurant's next chapter.

We think about this role in two parts: preparation and service.

Preparation is where consistency is created.

The General Manager is responsible for creating the conditions that allow exceptional service to happen night after night. Running meaningful pre-shifts. Reviewing reservations with intention. Understanding who's joining us each evening. Preparing the dining room. Reinforcing standards. Improving systems. Looking at every service with a constant eye toward making the next one better.

Over the past several months we've invested heavily in building the operational foundation of Café Vivant: detailed pre-opening procedures, manager standards, reservation preparation, guest history, training systems, service standards, and clear expectations throughout the organization.

The right General Manager won't simply execute those systems. They'll continually refine them.

When service begins, the General Manager belongs inside it.

This isn't a position for someone who prefers managing from the perimeter of the dining room or waiting for problems to present themselves.

The General Manager should be immersed in service: coaching in real time, supporting captains, reading the room continuously, staying connected to the kitchen, reinforcing standards, anticipating needs, and recognizing small deviations before they become larger ones.

We're looking for someone who enjoys shaping service while it's happening rather than reacting to it afterward.

You're a process-oriented leader.

You understand that exceptional restaurants are built through disciplined preparation, clear expectations, thoughtful systems, consistent execution, and continual refinement.

You enjoy improving organizations as much as running restaurants.

You communicate clearly.

You hold people accountable with consistency and respect.

You take ownership naturally. You enjoy creating clarity, establishing standards, and helping everyone around you perform at a higher level.

Most importantly, you're energized by the opportunity to join a restaurant that's still evolving and help shape what it becomes.

• Lead all front-of-house operations.
• Recruit, hire, train, coach, and develop the hospitality team.
• Partner closely with ownership and the Executive Chef.
• Lead nightly service from within the dining room.
• Continue refining systems, standards, and operational procedures.
• Oversee scheduling, labor management, payroll, and financial performance.
• Create accountability through preparation, communication, and presence.

• Significant leadership experience in a full-service restaurant.
• Demonstrated success leading high-performing hospitality teams.
• Excellent organizational, operational, and financial judgment.
• Strong communication skills.
• A genuine enthusiasm for hospitality, food, wine, and continual improvement.

Fine dining experience is valued, but judgment, discipline, organizational ability, and leadership matter more than pedigree.