Assistant Manager Restaurant

Job Description Job Description:\n\nABOUT THE POSITION Smoke on the Water is seeking an experienced, energetic, and hands-on Assistant Manager to help lead the daily operations of our waterfront restaurant and bar on Okauchee Lake. This is an OPERATIONS-FOCUSED leadership position. The Assistant Manager works closely with restaurant leadership to oversee day-to-day operations, lead the front-of-house team, maintain service standards, manage staffing and labor, resolve guest concerns, and ensure the restaurant is ready to deliver an exceptional experience every shift. We are looking for someone who sees what needs to be done and gets it done. The right person is comfortable leading a busy restaurant, making decisions in real time, coaching employees, solving problems, and taking ownership of the guest experience. Smoke on the Water is a high-energy hospitality environment where business volume can change quickly based on weather, lake traffic, live entertainment, holidays, sports, seasonal business, and other factors. The ability to anticipate business needs and adjust accordingly is essential. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► RESTAURANT OPERATIONS The Assistant Manager will help oversee the restaurant during assigned shifts and ensure that operational standards are consistently executed. Responsibilities include: • Lead restaurant shifts and coordinate front-of-house operations • Assume responsibility for restaurant operations when senior management is not present • Complete and oversee opening and closing procedures • Ensure the restaurant, bar, dining areas, outdoor spaces, and guest-facing areas are clean, organized, stocked, and ready for service • Monitor service flow and make real-time decisions to maintain efficient operations • Work closely with kitchen leadership to maintain strong communication between front-of-house and back-of-house teams • Monitor ticket times, table flow, guest volume, and service quality • Ensure food and beverage presentation and service meet restaurant standards • Identify operational issues before they become guest-service problems • Assist wherever necessary during high-volume periods ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► TEAM LEADERSHIP & DEVELOPMENT Great hospitality starts with a strong team. The Assistant Manager will be expected to actively lead, coach, and develop employees rather than simply supervise them. Responsibilities include: • Supervise servers, bartenders, hosts, food runners, bussers, and other restaurant team members • Set expectations and hold employees accountable for performance and service standards • Coach employees during shifts and provide constructive feedback • Assist with interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and training new employees • Help identify high-performing employees and opportunities for development • Address attendance, performance, and workplace issues appropriately • Conduct or participate in pre-shift meetings • Communicate daily priorities, specials, menu changes, promotions, and operational information to staff • Foster a workplace culture built around teamwork, accountability, respect, and hospitality ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► STAFFING & LABOR MANAGEMENT The Assistant Manager must understand that staffing needs change with business volume. Responsibilities include: • Assist with creating and maintaining employee schedules • Ensure appropriate staffing levels for anticipated business volume • Monitor labor throughout the shift • Adjust staffing and employee deployment as business levels change • Coordinate breaks and shift transitions • Respond to call-offs and unexpected staffing shortages • Balance strong guest service with responsible labor management ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► GUEST EXPERIENCE The Assistant Manager should be highly visible and engaged with guests. Responsibilities include: • Maintain an active management presence throughout the restaurant • Interact with guests and monitor overall satisfaction • Respond quickly and professionally to guest concerns • Resolve service issues whenever possible without unnecessary escalation • Empower and coach employees to provide excellent hospitality • Recognize repeat guests and help build long-term customer relationships • Review guest feedback and identify recurring opportunities for improvement Our goal isn’t simply to serve food and drinks. We want guests to leave wanting to come back. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► RESTAURANT READINESS & STANDARDS Details matter. The Assistant Manager is responsible for ensuring the restaurant looks, feels, and operates the way it should before and throughout every service. This includes: • Dining room and bar readiness • Cleanliness and sanitation • Appropriate lighting and atmosphere • Music and entertainment systems • Television operation and programming when applicable • Menus, signage, and promotional materials • Restrooms and guest-facing areas • Outdoor dining and waterfront areas when open • Proper stocking of service stations • Equipment and facility issue identification If something isn’t right, management should notice it before the guest does. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► FOOD SAFETY, SANITATION & RESPONSIBLE SERVICE • Ensure food safety and sanitation procedures are consistently followed • Maintain compliance with applicable health and safety regulations • Reinforce proper food handling, cleanliness, and employee hygiene standards • Ensure responsible alcohol service practices are followed • Identify and report equipment, maintenance, safety, or facility concerns • Maintain a safe environment for employees and guests ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► INVENTORY, CASH & COST CONTROLS The Assistant Manager will help protect the financial performance of the restaurant through responsible daily decision-making. Responsibilities may include: • Assist with food, beverage, and operating supply inventory • Assist with ordering, receiving, and product organization • Monitor waste and unnecessary product loss • Follow proper cash-handling procedures • Assist with register and drawer reconciliation • Complete required shift reports and management documentation • Monitor labor and other controllable operating expenses • Assist management with reviewing sales results, trends, and forecasts • Develop an understanding of restaurant P&L fundamentals and how operational decisions affect profitability ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR PREFERRED EXPERIENCE • 2+ years of restaurant, bar, hospitality, or food-service management experience preferred • Experience leading teams in a high-volume restaurant environment • Full-service restaurant and/or bar management experience strongly preferred • Experience with scheduling, POS, inventory, and restaurant management systems • Experience managing labor and staffing levels based on business volume • Food safety certification preferred, or willingness to obtain required certification • Experience in a high-volume or seasonal hospitality environment is a plus ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES • Strong leadership skills • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills • High level of personal accountability • Strong organizational and time-management skills • Ability to make decisions under pressure • Ability to coach and motivate employees • Strong attention to detail • Comfortable addressing performance issues when necessary • Ability to prioritize multiple responsibilities simultaneously • Strong guest-service instincts • Positive and professional attitude • Reliable transportation • Willingness to work hands-on alongside the team when necessary ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► SCHEDULE EXPECTATIONS Restaurant management requires availability when the restaurant is busiest. Candidates should be comfortable working a flexible schedule that may include: • Days • Evenings • Weekends • Holidays • High-volume summer and seasonal periods Schedule requirements will vary based on restaurant needs. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ► WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE A successful Assistant Manager at Smoke on the Water: ✓ Runs organized, efficient shifts ✓ Anticipates problems instead of waiting for someone else to identify them ✓ Keeps the restaurant properly staffed for business volume ✓ Develops employees and holds the team accountable ✓ Maintains strong communication between the front and back of house ✓ Resolves guest concerns professionally ✓ Protects food quality, service standards, cleanliness, and atmosphere ✓ Understands the importance of labor, inventory, waste, and cost controls ✓ Maintains a strong management presence during busy service periods ✓ Can be trusted to operate the restaurant without constant oversight ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHY SMOKE ON THE WATER? Smoke on the Water is a Lake Country destination built around great food, drinks, entertainment, and Wisconsin lake life. Our restaurant can move from a relaxed afternoon on Okauchee Lake to a high-volume dinner service quickly. That requires managers who are engaged, adaptable, and comfortable making decisions. We’re looking for someone who wants more than a management title. We’re looking for someone who wants to help run the restaurant, develop a great team, take ownership of the guest experience, and grow with the organization. \n\nCompany Description:\n\nOur philosophy at Smoke On The water is to proudly deliver a quality customer experience in a fun and friendly atmosphere, while working together to provide our team members with personal and professional growth opportunities. Because of this philosophy, it is critical that all team members understand the importance of excellent guest service. All of our positions, whether back of house, management, or front of house require a friendly personal and a willingness to interact and provide fun, professional and friendly guest service. Guests are not our only customers; fellow team members are our internal customers as well. By joining the Smoke On The Water team, you are committing yourself to these values and acknowledging your dedication to providing excellent guest service for our guests and our internal team, at all times Company Description Our philosophy at Smoke On The water is to proudly deliver a quality customer experience in a fun and friendly atmosphere, while working together to provide our team members with personal and professional growth opportunities. Because of this philosophy, it is critical that all team members understand the importance of excellent guest service. All of our positions, whether back of house, management, or front of house require a friendly personal and a willingness to interact and provide fun, professional and friendly guest service. Guests are not our only customers; fellow team members are our internal customers as well. By joining the Smoke On The Water team, you are committing yourself to these values and acknowledging your dedication to providing excellent guest service for our guests and our internal team, at all times