Area Director of Food & Beverage

Job Description

Job Description

Compensation Plan:

Base salary $150k-$160k/ year

Bonus Plan based on performance + Benefits

The Area Director of Food & Beverage will serve as the portfolio’s senior food-and-beverage strategist and operating leader. This executive will unite hotel and standalone restaurant operations around consistent standards, stronger controls, distinctive programming, and a guest experience aligned with the portfolio’s broader hospitality ambitions. The assignment calls for more than maintaining outlets: it requires a leader who can make each venue relevant, create purposeful connections among them, and move the portfolio from operating losses toward sustainable performance. 

The Portfolio and Purpose 

The role supports a distinctive hospitality portfolio that includes full-service hotel operations, lifestyle hospitality experiences, restaurant concepts, meeting and event activity, and proximity to major entertainment and community demand drivers. These businesses are intended to be more than individual venues: together, they should create energy, experiences, and reasons for residents, companies, visitors, and eventgoers to choose the market. The mandate is to unite the portfolio around that purpose while improving revenue, profitability, guest satisfaction, team engagement, and long-term asset value. 

What Success Looks Like 

• Create one portfolio-wide food-and-beverage vision while preserving the identity and appeal of each venue. 
• Improve profitability through disciplined labor, purchasing, inventory, menu engineering, pricing, waste, and productivity controls. 
• Raise service, quality, food safety, cleanliness, and leadership standards across hotel and standalone restaurant operations. 
• Increase utilization of significant meeting and event space while strengthening banquet, catering, lounge, bar, and event revenue. 
• Use programming, activations, partnerships, and compelling concepts to make the venues destinations for residents, hotel guests, companies, and local event visitors. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Complete a comprehensive operational and financial assessment of every outlet, banquet function, kitchen, team, vendor relationship, and guest journey; establish a sequenced improvement plan. 
• Develop clear operating standards, service rituals, accountability routines, labor models, purchasing practices, inventory controls, food-safety systems, and quality-assurance processes. 
• Own portfolio food-and-beverage strategy, budgets, forecasts, profit improvement, capital priorities, and performance reviews in partnership with property and regional leaders. 
• Lead menu engineering, concept positioning, pricing, product quality, beverage strategy, and outlet-specific programming based on guest demand and financial performance. 
• Create productive collaboration across hotel operations, restaurant concepts, sales and marketing, and event partners. 
• Build banquet and catering capabilities that allow sales professionals to sell while operations teams execute consistently. 
• Recruit, coach, and hold outlet and culinary leaders accountable; create succession, training, and retention plans. 
• Evaluate management and vendor arrangements objectively and recommend changes that improve focus, brand integrity, guest experience, and economics. 
• Develop event-driven packages and activations tied to local entertainment, area residents, employers, festivals, and community occasions. 
• Provide ownership and regional leadership with concise reporting on revenue, profit, labor, cost of sales, safety, guest experience, risks, and corrective actions. 

What You Bring 

• Significant progressive food-and-beverage leadership experience spanning both full-service hotels and successful standalone restaurants. 
• Demonstrated responsibility for multi-outlet or multi-property strategy, complex banquets/catering, bars and lounges, and diverse culinary concepts. 
• Proven record improving underperforming operations and balancing concept quality with sustainable economics. 
• Deep command of P&L management, labor productivity, purchasing, inventory, cost of goods, menu engineering, pricing, forecasting, and capital planning. 
• Strong knowledge of food safety, sanitation, responsible alcohol service, quality control, and applicable regulatory requirements. 
• Ability to lead through property teams and operating partners, establish standards, and create accountability without becoming the day-to-day outlet manager. 
• Executive presence, practical creativity, relationship-building skill, and comfort working with ownership, brands, civic partners, event stakeholders, chefs, and frontline teams. 
• Ability to work on-site in the assigned market and be present during peak periods, openings, activations, and special events as needed. 

Preferred Background 

• Leadership experience in a branded full-service environment and/or lifestyle hospitality setting. 
• Oversight of high-volume meeting and event space, destination restaurants, entertainment venues, or mixed-use hospitality districts. 
• Experience repositioning concepts, opening or relaunching outlets, and building community-relevant programming. 

Measures of Success 

• Food-and-beverage revenue, outlet contribution, banquet/catering growth, and progress toward sustainable profitability. 
• Labor productivity, cost of sales, purchasing savings, inventory accuracy, waste, and forecast performance. 
• Guest satisfaction, review sentiment, service consistency, food quality, and food-safety compliance. 
• Meeting-space and outlet utilization, event capture, and effectiveness of activations and partnerships. 
• Leadership bench strength, training completion, accountability, retention, and cross-property collaboration. 

Leadership Profile 

You are a strategic, relationship-oriented builder who can move comfortably from an ownership discussion to a city partnership, a commercial planning session, or a property walk. You set clear expectations, use data to prioritize opportunity, empower capable operators, and follow through with accountability. Just as important, you understand that hospitality can help shape a destination—and you know how to turn that idea into practical, measurable action.