SERVICE AND WINE DIRECTOR

SERVICE AND WINE DIRECTOR
Chef-driven French Restaurant Westside, Los Angeles

A small, ambitious restaurant is looking for a Service and Wine Director to run the floor and the wine program.

Four things define this job. You run the room. You control the wine. You train the team on both.

The kitchen has a genuine point of view. The floor should match it. If you have been a head sommelier or senior manager at a larger house and you are ready to set the standard instead of executing someone else's, this is that step.

Run the floor

• Own nightly service from first seating to last table
• Reservations, pacing, table management, VIPs, and the regulars who make a neighborhood restaurant work
• Recover a table that has gone wrong before the guest has to ask
• Opening and closing discipline, checklists, and the unglamorous systems that make consistency possible
• Lead from the floor during service, not from an office

Control the wine program

• List design, purchasing, inventory, allocations and supplier relationships, with real autonomy inside the budget
• Own beverage cost and the inventory discipline behind it

Train the team

• Hire, train and develop the front of house: servers, runners, host, back waiters
• Build the service sequence and the training that makes it repeatable, not dependent on who is working that night
• Run wine education so the entire floor sells confidently, not just you
• Pre-shift that means something
• Address performance directly and early, from the first coaching conversation through the hard one

Own the numbers

• Labor cost and beverage cost are yours. Schedule to the volume, protect the line, and never let either one show on the floor.
• Read a P&L, understand what moves it, and explain your numbers when asked
• Make the daily judgment calls, on comps, staffing and buying, that decide whether the month works

Who we are looking for

• Michelin-level service experience, highly valued
• Certified Sommelier or Advanced, or equivalent depth demonstrated on the floor
• A track record of building and keeping a team, not just supervising one
• Genuine fiscal discipline. This is not a role where someone else watches the costs.
• French language ability is a plus, not a requirement

The details

• Dinner only, 5 days per week, consecutive days off
• $95,000 to $110,000 base, depending on experience
• Quarterly performance bonus tied to service, team retention, labor and beverage cost
• Certification and exam fees covered
• Health coverage, paid time off, dining benefit
• Real autonomy and a room you can put your name on

Confidential inquiries welcome. Send a resume and a short note about a team you built or a program you turned around.