Lead Bartender

JOB TITLE:       LEAD BARTENDER

STATUS:           Regular, Non-Exempt

DEPARTMENT: Dining Room

SUPERVISOR:   ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER, GENERAL MANAGER

POSITION OVERVIEW: As the primary contact for guest in the bar, the Bartender is responsible for selling, preparing and serving mixed beverages, wine and food. Duties include preparing and serving beverages, overseeing bar maintenance, making menu suggestions, delivering food and drinks, describing the dishes to guests, recommending wine selections, monitoring guest satisfaction, and managing inventory. Must be pleasant, conscientious, and professional with an extensive knowledge of mixology, product, and alcoholic beverage selections. Must be able to operate effectively as part of a team, communicate clearly, and ensure smooth service operations and quality service.

GENERAL EXPECTATIONS:

• Act with integrity, honesty and knowledge that promote the culture, values of RSG Group, Mina Group, and Mother Tongue.
• Ensure that all guests feel welcome and are given responsive, professional, gracious service at all times.
• Maintains clean and organized work stations that are cohesive with the restaurant’s philosophy, culture, and standards of excellence.
• Recognize or seek areas for staff and restaurant improvement and offer positive solutions for change.
• Operate within the restaurant on a daily basis with efficiency, respect, friendliness, professionalism, teamwork, knowledge, patience, awareness, compassion, courtesy and initiative.
• Understand completely all programs, procedures, standards, specifications, guidelines, and training programs.
• Understand philosophy of management and owner. Displays consistent attention to detail and follow through of all restaurant policies.
• Represents the restaurant professionally through effective communication, cooperation and relationships with the all business partners.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: (Includes but is not limited to the following duties. Other duties may be assigned):

• Understand and perform job duties to the expectations of RSG Group and Mina Group and the restaurant Service, Food, Beverage, and Wine manuals.
• Oversees and assists the entire front of house team with all elements of service. Takes ownership of the bar, knowing the names and preferences of their guests and VIPs, greeting, seating, running, bussing, re-setting etc.
• Executes and facilitates service in cooperation with other Bartenders, sommeliers, and managers. Facilitates the communication between the FOH & BOH.
• Describes dinner features as needed, including menu changes and daily additions.
• Follows  through  and  communicates  with  Management  team/Chef  on  VIP  procedures  and special requests.
• Conducts continuous training with service team regarding the spirit and cocktail list and provides complete training for all new hires.
• Participate in Pre-Shift meetings and learn new menu items.
• Taking and making beverage orders.
• Describes dinner features as needed, including menu changes and daily additions. Takes food orders and provides setups and service for guests dining at the bar.
• Coordinating transfers with manager/server team
• Welcome all guests and ensure guests receive responsive, professional, and gracious service at all times.
• Develops rapport with guests.
• Describes dinner features as needed (including changes and additions).
• Answer any questions about the menu, specific food items, the wine list or any other inquiries the guest may have.
• Liaise with server to ensure communication at all times about wants and needs of guests.
• Understand the order taken by the server and any changes in the menu, dietary restrictions, food allergies, etc.
• Assists the Chef in expediting the food to the bar.
• Ensure  that  all  food  and  products  are  consistently  prepared  and  served  according  to  the restaurant’s standards.
• Maintain a clean, safe environment all times in the bar (front bar, back bar, well, floor).
• Fully understand and comply with all federal, state, county and municipal regulations that pertain to health, safety, and labor requirements of the restaurant employees and guests.

SUPPORTIVE FUNCTIONS: In addition to performance of the essential functions, this position may be required to perform a combination of the following supportive functions, with the percentage of time performing each function to be solely determined by the manager based upon the particular requirements of the restaurant.

• Helps rotate and create seasonal cocktails.
• Communicates needs of the entire bar staff to management.
• Helps management communicate needs to the entire bar staff.
• With permission of the management team, meets with vendors to discover new spirits.
• Pays attention to buying trends of guests for everything behind the bar including cocktails, spirits, beer and other items from behind the bar. With this knowledge helps eliminate unnecessary items behind the bar.
• Assists management with bar inventory.
• Is mindful of spirit costs and assists management in maintaining appropriate costs for cocktails.

SPECIFIC JOB KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES: The individual must possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities and be able to explain and demonstrate that he or she can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, using some other combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Must  be  able  to  speak,  read,  write  and  understand  the  primary  language(s)  used  in  the workplace.
• Must be able to read and write to facilitate the communication process.
• Requires good communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Must possess basic computational ability.
• Must possess basic computer skills. Must have complete knowledge of POS system.
• Knowledge of the appropriate table settings and service ware.
• Ability to describe all menu items, prices and methods of preparation.   And to use suggestive selling techniques to encourage the guests to choose items that are house specialties.
• Must have complete knowledge of and use the service guidelines outlined in the Front Server Manual.
• Must have complete knowledge of products and specifications that is outlined in the dinner menu matrix and the cuisine, beverage and wine manual.
• Further duties not currently listed in this outline may be added at the manager’s discretion.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Minimum 3-4 years of fine dining mixology experience. Knowledge of service and food and beverage, generally involving at least 2 years of dining room experience and thorough knowledge of fine dining, service procedures, and functions.
• Cleanliness, organization, and  the ability to work well in  a team situation are crucial  to this position.
• Extensive Food and Wine knowledge
• Must be minimum age to serve alcohol.
• High school or equivalent education required.
• Applicants must possess a strong dedication toward learning, and motivation to progress in a fine dining environment.
• Possess excellent basic math skills and have the ability to operate a cash register POS system and Microsoft based computer systems.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite of products and strong financial acumen.
• Must  be  impeccably  groomed,  maintain  good  hygiene,  good  posture,  and  have  required uniform and tools.
• Responsive to constructive feedback from Chefs and Managers.

GROOMING: All employees must maintain a neat, clean and well-groomed appearance per Company standards outlined in the Service manual.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to communicate effectively with management, guests and hourly staff.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a Bartender to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Most work tasks are performed indoors. Temperature is moderate and controlled by restaurant environmental systems; however, must be able to work in extreme temperatures like freezers (- 10°F) and kitchens ( 110°F), possibly for one hour or more.
• Must be able to stand and exert well-paced mobility for at least 8 hours in length.
• Exert          well-paced      ability   to        maneuver      between        functions.
• Must be able to exert well-paced ability to reach other departments of the restaurant on a timely basis.
• Must be able to lift trays of food or food items weighing up to 30 lbs. on a regular and continuing basis.
• Must be able to push and pull carts and equipment weighing up to 250 lbs. frequently.
• Must be able to exert well-paced ability in limited space and to reach other locations of the restaurant on a timely basis.
• Must be able to exert well-paced ability in limited space.
• Must be able to bend, stoop, squat and stretch to fulfill cleaning tasks.
• Requires grasping, writing,  standing,  sitting,  walking,  repetitive  motions,  bending,  climbing, stooping, crouching, kneeling, listening, hearing and visual acuity.
• Talking and hearing occur continuously in the process of communicating with guests, supervisors and subordinates.
• Vision occurs continuously with the most common visual functions being those of near vision and depth perception.
• Requires manual dexterity to use and operate all necessary equipment.
• Safely lift and easily maneuver plates, cases of water, chairs and dining room tables.

COMMENTS: This job description is not an exclusive or exhaustive list of all the job functions that a manager in this position may be asked to perform from time to time.

Regular attendance in conformance with the standards, which may be established from time to time, is essential to the successful performance of this position. Employees with irregular attendance will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

Due to the cyclical nature of the hospitality industry, employees may be required to work varying schedules to reflect the business needs of the restaurant. In addition, attendance at all scheduled training sessions and meetings is required.

JOB DESCRIPTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT AND ACCEPTANCE: I have read the above job description and understand the requirements. I have the ability to perform all of the functions listed above. Furthermore, I understand that this is not to be construed as an employment contract.

I acknowledged having received a copy of this job description and I understand what is expected of my performance at Mother Tongue.