General Manager

General Manager, The Mindful Café

About The Mindful Café

The Mindful Café is an independent organic café offering thoughtfully prepared food, specialty coffee and tea, smoothies, baked goods, catering and private events. We combine high-quality ingredients and personal service with the warmth of a neighborhood café.

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on General Manager to lead daily operations, develop our team, strengthen our coffee and beverage program, improve operating systems and help move the café toward sustainable profitability.

This is not simply a shift-management position. We are looking for an experienced operator who understands both hospitality and the business of running a successful café.

What Success Looks Like

The General Manager will be responsible for five primary outcomes:

1. Improve financial performance and move the café toward profitability.
2. Deliver an exceptional customer experience, with coffee and beverages as a core part of the café.
3. Build, train and lead a strong, accountable team.
4. Create reliable systems so daily operations do not require constant owner involvement.
5. Make the café increasingly efficient, consistent and repeatable while preserving its neighborhood character.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor sales, labor costs, food and beverage costs, inventory, waste, spoilage and portion consistency.
• Understand which menu items and beverages sell well and contribute appropriately to margins.
• Identify opportunities to grow revenue, customer frequency and average transaction size.
• Improve scheduling and labor efficiency without compromising service.
• Recommend appropriate pricing, menu, portion, product or operational improvements for owner approval.
• Help grow catering, private events and other appropriate revenue opportunities.
• Track agreed operating and financial measures and regularly communicate results and action plans to the owner.
• Maintaining consistent preparation of espresso drinks, coffee, matcha, chai and other hot and iced beverages.
• Ensuring proper milk steaming, drink construction, presentation and speed of service.
• Training and coaching employees on beverage preparation and bar workflow.
• Maintaining cleanliness and proper care of coffee equipment.
• Monitoring beverage inventory, waste, pricing and profitability.
• Continuously improving beverage quality and consistency.
• Staffing and scheduling within approved labor budgets.
• Opening, closing, cleaning, preparation and service procedures.
• Inventory, ordering and routine vendor management.
• POS and cash-control procedures.
• Food safety, sanitation and allergy/cross-contact protocols.
• Customer complaints and service recovery.
• Catering and private-event execution.
• Building and improving practical SOPs, checklists and training systems.
• Train, coach and develop employees.
• Set clear expectations and hold people accountable.
• Address performance problems promptly and professionally.
• Resolve employee conflicts fairly and calmly.
• Cross-train employees and develop stronger team members into future leaders.
• Build a culture of hospitality, teamwork, initiative and responsibility.

Experience & Qualifications

• Approximately 5+ years of restaurant, café, fast-casual or comparable food-service experience, including at least 3 years in a meaningful management role.
• Demonstrated responsibility for employees and daily operations.
• Experience scheduling labor, managing inventory and ordering, training employees and enforcing procedures.
• Working knowledge of food costs, labor costs, waste control, margins and restaurant/café profitability.
• Strong customer-service and hospitality experience.
• Food-safety knowledge and appropriate certification, or willingness to obtain certification promptly.
• Strong communication, judgment, organization, problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills.
• Willingness to work hands-on in every front-of-house position.
• Specialty coffee or high-volume café operations.
• Organic or health-conscious food concepts.
• Well-run fast-casual, quick-service, franchise or multi-unit restaurant environments.
• Improving an underperforming operation.
• Building SOPs and repeatable operating systems.
• Catering, private events and delivery platforms.
• Menu analysis and improving restaurant or café margins.

Working With the Chef & Owner

How to Apply

Please submit your résumé and briefly describe:

• The food-service operations you have managed.
• The size of the teams you have supervised.
• Your coffee/café experience.
• An example of how you improved the financial or operational performance of a restaurant, café or similar business.

Professional references will be requested.