Restaurant Manager

About Makina

Makina is a woman-owned Eritrean and Ethiopian eatery - "Powered by Shiro" - operating under the Habesha Hospitality philosophy. We started as a food truck in 2017, added a counter on Governors Island, and now run a full-service dining room on Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside: the first Eritrean-Ethiopian restaurant in Queens, one of the most diverse boroughs in the world. A production commissary supplies all three, plus catering.

What we're building here isn't only a restaurant. It's a table. Our guests come for shiro and injera and a room that feels like somebody's home, and they come back because someone in that room knew their name.

Our hospitality is built on the Three R's - Receive, Reverence, Return - and on traditions like the coffee ceremony (jebena buna), gursha, and communal eating.

The Opportunity

We're looking for a hands-on Restaurant Manager to run our flagship dining room. You'll work directly with ownership, set the tone on the floor, build and develop the front-of-house team, and help make Makina a place the neighborhood claims as its own.

Our dining room seats 53 and turns roughly 80 covers a night, run by a front-of-house team of four to five. You'll partner closely with our BOH Manager - this is not a job where one person carries both sides of the pass.

The right person is an experienced full-service leader with genuine warmth and strong organizational instincts. You lead by example, you're a visible presence on the floor during service, and you understand that here, hospitality is cultural - every team member is an ambassador for Makina's Eritrean and Ethiopian identity.

What You'll Own

The floor. Open and close. Run service. Set the standard for what a Makina table feels like from the moment someone walks through the door to the moment they leave - and make sure that standard holds on a slow Tuesday as firmly as it does on a full Saturday.

The team. Recruit, hire, train and lead the front of house. Build the schedule and hold FOH labor inside the approved budget. Coach in the moment, evaluate honestly, resolve conflict early. Carry Makina's culture - strong work ethic, a student's mindset, and kindness - and hire for it. Developing a second front-of-house lead is one of the first priorities of the role.

The story. Learn East African food and the Makina story well enough to teach it: to your staff first, and through them to every guest who asks. This is the part of the job that can't be delegated.

The systems. Toast POS, Resy, and MarginEdge. Reservations, table turns, waitlist, walk-ins. Daily reconciliation and cash handling. Clean, timely reporting.

The room. Beverage program execution and inventory, guest recovery, FOH ordering and stock, and the physical condition of the dining room, bar and front entry. Partner with our BOH Manager on ticket times, menu changes, allergen handling and shared labor targets.

Compliance. Food safety and sanitation, alcohol service law, labor law, and current licenses and permits - maintained, documented, and never a surprise. Ready for NYC DOH inspection at any time.

The neighborhood. Build real relationships across Sunnyside and greater Queens: neighboring businesses, community organizations, local press. Bring us ideas for events and collaborations that make Makina part of this place rather than just located in it.

Your Week

The restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday and closed Mondays. Monday you're off. You choose one additional weekday off, Tuesday or Wednesday, set in advance so the team can plan around it. Thursday through Sunday you're on the floor - these are the volume days. Service doesn't begin until 5PM Tuesday through Friday, which leaves those daytimes open for ordering, scheduling, vendor calls and bank runs without pulling you off the floor during service.

Service hours are 5PM-10PM Tuesday through Friday, and 12PM-10PM Saturday and Sunday.

What You Bring

2+ years of management experience in a full-service restaurant (front-of-house leadership)
Proficiency with Toast, Resy and Square, or comparable POS and reservation platforms, plus third-party delivery apps and Google Suite
Working knowledge of beer, wine and spirits
NYC Food Protection Certificate - required within 30 days of start. We cover the full cost of the course and exam.
Availability for evenings and weekends
Strong organization, multitasking and attention to detail
Excellent verbal and written communication
A warm, team-oriented leadership style and a real passion for hospitality
Genuine curiosity about - or connection to - East African cuisine and culture

About MarginEdge: MarginEdge is how we run this restaurant - invoices, food and beverage cost, inventory, ordering and budget all live there. Prior experience is not required. We expect you to become our in-house expert within your first 90 days: fluent enough to work in it daily, catch what it's telling us, and train others on it. We'll give you the access and the time.

Pluses: bilingual (Spanish helpful for BOH and commissary coordination; Amharic or Tigrinya a plus); full-service opening experience.

What We Offer

$65,000 - $75,000 per year, based on experience
Two weeks paid vacation per year, available on completion of your six-month probationary period
40 hours of paid sick and safe time per year under NYC's Protected Time Off Law, accruing from your first day and separate from vacation
Shift meal provided, plus a dining discount
A six-month performance review - a real sit-down on team building and retention, SOPs, culture, guest satisfaction, systems fluency, and labor and cost control
Direct working relationship with the founders, and a genuine say in how this room runs

Why Join Makina

Lead the flagship of the first Eritrean-Ethiopian restaurant in Queens
Join a mission-driven, woman-owned company with deep cultural roots and a real community focus
Grow alongside an expanding multi-concept hospitality group
Shape a dining room that's still deciding what it wants to become

Makina Cafe DBA Cafe Makina is an equal opportunity employer.