r/Restaurant_Managers

First off, I approved this post with a mod before posting. Just wanted to clarify that.

Can someone advise me on what I need to do to get an interview at first watch? What kind of experience they look for? Full disclosure, I don’t have a lot of management experience but i do have a lot of leadership, “head server” if you will, experience. I want to move to management but can’t do late nights like all the company I work for offer. Thanks for the advice!

Many places have a shifty, which seems to be a legal nightmare if any issues happen.

Just wanted to make sure. I worked at a place where employees drinks were all $2.

Is this legally an option?

Maybe with a 1 drink min?

In Az btw.

I currently manage a mid volume QSR. Our franchise opened up a 2nd location about a year ago. It has gone through 3 GM's during this time. 2 were let go for legitimate reasons the third left because they wanted to start a family and no longer wanted to commit the time needed to run the place. The second location is a relatively low volume for now at least. (I hope to change that)

I am really just looking for advice on time management. I don't want to neglect my current store for my new store.

Hi folks,

I work as Floor Manager for a steakhouse. I have a server here who long story short, has great sales and is a shark, but that personality falls into behaviors that have brought down morale of the team and is great at creating tension within the staff. The issue is that she is very pushy. She will make recommendations and "influence" other managers to change sections to one that benefits her. I have caught her making changes and moving tables into her section ( servers are not allowed to touch the iPad). My biggest worry is that yes she has great sales, but is selfish. This isn't fair to the rest of the team who works just as hard as she does.

My question is how do you deal with this (a server that put out numbers but thinks it's okay to bend the rules to benefit her)? I need her to stop having access to the iPad reservations because not only is it not fair, its causing tension with the rest of the waitstaff. Other staff members can feel this special treatment she demands and it's really starting to bug me.

What do you all do when the internet goes dark? I work at a cashless resort bar and the internet can go down enterprise wide, and operations are fucked. Manageable but fucked, and it ruins the employee experience.

Knuckle busters are basically obsolete now; card numbers aren’t raised much anymore.

We can do single transactions, but the tip option doesn’t show on the receipt because when offline we go to QSR (quick service). I need any and all advice, links to products to help operations during a black out. TIA

I have now semi regular customers. A older married couple. They used to come in about every three days or so. Now, not nearly as often. The passed year or so I’ve seen them maybe 3 times. They just don’t get out as often as they used to and I think they don’t have the money to spend like that

They used to bring me the most amazing homemade banana bread! Every couple months or so. They are so thoughtful.

Anyway, today they come in and the first thing outta their mouth was “HAPPY EARLY BDAY!” ❤️ (my bday is tomorrow ) they said they know they are a day early but wanted to make sure they got to come and tell me happy bday. I don’t even remember telling them when my bday was! Lol. But, it just felt amazing, to have these ppl who only know me from my job, actually made a point to not just remember my bday but made sure they came in to tell me happy bday. I don’t even celebrate my bday any more but it was just the warmest feeling ever.

Moral of the story : small gestures/words really can make a difference in someone’s day/life. Just to see they cared enuf made me feel awesome! Im gunna make it a point to make sure I make someone feel this way every day I possibly can

Hello! I am a FOH restaurant manager. I have had little to no training but have been in this role for about 2 years. Our restaurant really took a hard hit from Covid (as I know many have) and we have just not been able to get back up to a decent business level. I work for a hospitality group but my location is basically the “redheaded stepchild”. We have leagues Monday-Thursday during the summer and that definitely brings in some business but that means Friday-Sunday (the days we should be seeing the most revenue) have turned into almost nothing. I am interested to hear some ideas about what I can do on a Saturday to drive sales or at least get people through the door. We have happy hour 2-6 and 9-close but what else can I do to get some movement?? Any advice is GREATLY appreciated

Need this fixed asap.

Building is only 6 months old. Cleanest prison I've ever been in. Drains are spotless and I treat them every day. Dumpsters are sprayed inside and out. No food hiding, floors scrubbed every other night. Nothing rotten or bad. Garbage cans spotless.

I'm really stumped by this. I guess we are in the middle of Wisconsin, but downtown a big town. Closest farms are probably 10 miles away.

Right now they're for the most part in the kitchen, and our back storage area. That's where they seem to be attracted to. They have yet to get too far into the lobby. And they're not attracted to anything specific, they just fly around and torture everyone.

Any ideas of places I haven't checked or thought of?

I should also mention our hoods are cleaned nightly, same with pulling out ALL equipment.

And before you say flyswatter, for how many there are, I would legit have to hire another person.

We will be starting a nightly spray, using food safe bug spray, but idk how well that will work.

Failed our fucking steritech because of these bastards.

Edit: their house flies. A pink sludge was found in our AC/roof drain. Got to figure out how to get to the roof now 😂

I checked the surrounding property, there's no dead animals, no rotting food or anything. Like I said we keep it pretty clean.

It is for sure not the grease traps. Those are clean on a regular basis, degreaser and boiling water is poured down all the drains every night. In the mornings we put enzymatic cleaner down them.

My suspicion is going to that pink sludge.

On the ground where it drops from the drain, there is a coating of what I can only describe as Grease... Despite no Grease being able to get up there.

I got a really bad feeling when I start cleaning that, there's going to be a dead bird, or squirrel or something.

I’ve worked in restaurants since I was 14 years old, fast forward to 23 years old and became a manager at a privately owned restaurant, now nearing 28. I have a bachelors degree and recreation management and a concentration in Tourism, stuck with restaurants and a brief stint at a hotel because the money is better. My job is 65k a year (NYS) no benefits at the moment. It’s comfortable, keeps me near home (Disabled mom, Dad has had cancer since I was 18), but I feel it’s my time to leave the job and possibly a new place.

That being said, I’ve fallen out of the love with the job and maybe even the position? I’m good at it, I work hard, don’t take off, do the right stuff. The stress between that and home life (and having a life in general) just isn’t boding well for me mentally.
And the money sure as hell aint worth my headaches. They want me to take over as owner but I just don’t love the place that much. I’m good at it but don’t have the passion for it.

I was wondering what different careers you have travelled down after leaving restaurant management or just some suggestions in general. Thanks guys.

Hey all- I’ve been a GM and manager in the industry for many years now and have relocated due to some family stuff and needing to be closer. Where I’ve moved to in contrast to where I was, the job prospects have been dismal. I have little to no networked folks behind me here which would normally be what I’d lean on. “Here” is Atlanta. Does anyone have any experience with recruiters for a manager, GM or higher roles they’re familiar with? Goodwin and a few other googled ones seem less like recruiters and more like aggregators, so I’m kind of lost.

Much appreciate in advance for any recs!

I am the GM of a breakfast restaurant opening end of this month. I’m currently working on how I would like to pay my support staff. Out of curiosity what tip-out percentages do you run? And how is it split? (Host, Expo, runner, Busser)

Thank you.

I am a restaurant at a huge hotel and I have come to the realization that with my schedule and the hours I work having a meaningful personal life is practically impossible. And maintaining a relationship is even harder, will it always be like this?

I am returning to work tomorrow as a first time mom to a 7 week old. I’ve been a restaurant manager for 5 years now, both at a family owned and now at a chain restaurant. All the moms I have met in this industry, either didn’t return to work or came back in a different position. I’m just wondering if any of you have successfully continued in this career? I am exclusively breastfeeding and will have to pump at work. Also wondering if any of you have had experience with this? I have lots of worries on how this will work, because with pumping I will have to be on a more strict schedule and as we all know restaurants don’t work that way. Let me know your thoughts and experiences!

I am the General Manager of a restaurant and I was wondering how my workload sounded to other managers. The restaurant averages about 1,200 covers a week and $66K in sales. Open for lunch/brunch and dinner 7 days a week (except Mondays - just dinner). We do not have a host and it is the manager-on-duty's role to be the host of the restaurant, oversee the floor (max capacity about 100), and close up shop.

I work 4 floor shifts a week on dinner shifts that are either 4hrs, 4.5hrs, or 5.5hrs depending on the night of the week. All other manager shifts are filled by the owner (1 shift) and my team of 3 managers who do 2-3 manager shifts. On other days, they do tipped roles like bartend, food run, and serve. I am the only one doing full managerial duties.

We have an offsite accountant and two owners who are relatively present, so I am not looking at the financials. I do handle our large parties/private events, social media, all staff issues, and issues of maintenance tend to go through me before I bring in the owners if necessary.

The owners are going to start a new place by next year and have implied they'd like me to take a firmer role over the place. I think they'd like the buck to stop with me more. I am very happy in my role and my relationship with them, and happy with that slight shift in responsibility. No specific added responsibilities, but it sounds like I should handle more issues on my own.

But I often find myself working 50-60hrs a week as it is, which I know is normal. I am wondering if I have a case to make to ask for a host or direct things from a little higher vantage point than working 4 shifts in the trenches on the floor with a specific role of host. Being tied to the door makes for what feels like a pretty short period of time before and after the shifts to get all of my other work done and also look ahead at things.

Does anything jump out as unreasonable? I am also happy with my compensation currently and am paid on the higher end of similar roles in my area, so this is not an issue of being underpaid. If I need to suck it up and inject more energy into this, I will.

I’ve worked at my new job for about 3 weeks now, today one of the workers gave their friends free meals, and I confronted him as I was on my way out let him know he needs to start having them pay, and after his excuses I Let him know know I was made aware of the past times he has done it and told him I was to watch out for that since this has happened before and he’s been confronted about it previously many times, (as this is his one millionth time time doing it.)He told me that he promises it’s the last time. I said all of this in a not super stern way or anything and as I’m also trying to slow my way into managing them, since I’m new but still letting him know not to do it, and I’m in the loop so he can’t use the excuses with me, I’ve also sent messages to the group chat about things to get done as inspections are around the corner and their a lot of things that need to change , all my managers and some other coworkers agree I’m doing well and they appreciate how much I’ve been helping. I’m sure word will get around about how people can’t trust to do things like giving out free food and stuff around me bc I’ll hold them accountable. My last job I was there since opening so it was easier. I’m new and everyone sees themself as superiors and the such since they have been there longer. I try my best to not care, and just tell myself it’s my job to hold people accountable wether they like it or not, but I don’t want everyone to feel like I’m against them, I’m not I’m just trying to follow the rules and help the place get better as past managers have failed to be able to get any of them to listen so, any advice for people who are newer to a place while trying to integrate managing them as I’ve been told to manage them already and the such. Only nice reply’s back please 🥲

I care for my mom and I work at a large chain steakhouse. We have a lot of employees and run around 10 to 15 servers a shift. I have asked for a modified schedule to care for my mom and they were aware of my mom before I was hired. I have asked for a later schedule but right now I open dinner shift every day. I am by numbers the top server and I work extremely hard. There are other servers that have late schedules due to other jobs and stuff but my schedule manager won't approve my request. How should I handle this??

Is this legal when I have documents and have communicated about my responsibilities?