Assistant Cafe and Retail Manager - Chestnut St

dandelionchocolate; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 34,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Vision benefits

Dental benefits

401k

Paid vacation

Holiday pay

Paid sick time

Commuter benefits

FSAs

Gym discounts

Travel to origin

Career growth

Job summary

Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco's Mission District is seeking an experienced Assistant Cafe and Retail Manager to lead our Chestnut St Café team and ensure a world-class guest experience. This full-time role blends leadership with hands-on work—from opening cash drawers and onboarding new hires to merchandising, scheduling, training, and maintaining top hospitality standards.

Working with the General Manager, you will foster a caring, stable shop culture while delivering exceptional guest

Qualifications

• Flexible Schedule -- full-time hours including daytime, evenings, and weekends.
• Leadership Experience -- at least one year in a food/retail/hospitality leadership role.
• Technical & Computer Aptitude -- ability to develop checklists and training materials, manage digital tools.
• Mechanical Know-How -- troubleshoot equipment and liaise with service professionals.
• Excellent Communication Skills -- strong written and verbal communication across teams.

Responsibilities

• Maintain smooth daily operations: provide tools and plans for the team, manage supplies, keep the space organized, audit checklists, manage deposits and payroll basics.
• Lead and support the team to enhance guest experiences, delegate tasks, and coordinate with the General Manager to ensure hospitality excellence.
• Develop systems and merchandising programs to elevate in-store presentation and adapt to new locations.
• Use tools to track sales and inventory to measure year-over-year progress and inform goals.
• Perform other tasks as necessary.

Job description

Hours: Full-time, (40 hours/week, a flexible schedule is preferred)

Report: Chestnut GM

Location: Chestnut Cafe, on-site

Wage: starts at $29.50/hour + tips

About Us

Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker and cafe in San Francisco's Mission District. We make chocolate from only two ingredients, cocoa beans and cane sugar, and travel to origin as often as we can to build good, trusting relationships with the producers who grow and ferment our beans. We're seeking an experienced Assistant Cafe and Retail Manager to support our team and the guest experience at our Chestnut St Cafe where we tell our story and share our passion for chocolate.

About the Role

There is no typical day at our store, and we're looking for leaders who are excited to help create a world-class experience for everyone from the chocolate novice to the industry expert (and is savvy enough to know the difference). Collaborating with the team is as important as leading one. Your day might start with trouble-shooting the starting cash levels for the drawer, making sure everyone has the tools to prepare chocolate samples before the weekend, or preparing an onboarding packet and scheduling training for a new team member. As the day progresses, you'll need to recognize issues and know how to elevate them such as noticing that we're unexpectedly low on milk, a pastry sign is out of date, or the retail shelves are not looking their best. You respond by running to the market to buy milk, taking a picture of the out-of-date sign to send to the Creative team, and giving a quick tutorial to the team on merchandising. Above all, you are a support system for the team and are always willing to jump in and lend a hand. Working alongside the General Manager and your team, you'll create unique, thoughtful experiences for our guests as well as foster a caring, stable, and supportive environment for the team. This full-time position starts at $29.50/hour + tips.

About You

Our ideal candidate is a mature, team-oriented assistant manager who is equally enthusiastic about supporting the team and the guest experience. You have the experience to know that no plan ever goes perfectly -- team members call out sick, products are out of stock, and machines break -- and you always have a Plan B in your back pocket. Your style of leadership balances both type-A rigor with empathetic soft skills and collaborative communication. You've previously built long-standing systems like checklists, guidelines, and documentation that help the team operate at its best, even when the line is out the door. In addition to leadership skills, you have the soft skills to understand a team member's long-term motivation and to help them map a career path in coffee and chocolate. You will be measured on your ability to support your team in providing world-class hospitality and guest experiences, the tenure of your team members, how well you keep the shop's daily operations humming, your team's trust & respect, your leadership values, and your ability to continuously improve our guest experiences.

Responsibilities

• Systems and Processes --Maintain smooth daily operations: provide tools for team members to continuously improve, make sure supplies and tools are available, keep the space neat and organized, periodically audit checklists, provide the team with daily plans, prepare weekly deposits, assist with payroll, serve as a double-check on inventory, merchandising, and scheduling, and maintain food and safety standards for health and safety compliance.
• Leadership -- Proactively contribute ideas to optimize our space, work with the team to continually improve guest experiences, and streamline team operations so that we improve each year. Understand your resources, delegate tasks, and work closely with the General Manager to ensure the highest levels of hospitality and minimize surprises. You are as comfortable leading a guest through our chocolate samples to find exactly the right bar as you are stepping behind the espresso machine to make a cortado or handling an escalated guest issue while also ensuring that orders are placed on time.
• Hospitality -- Maintain a high level of hospitality and serve as a role model for the team. Continually look for ways to improve the guest experience and delight visitors and team members alike. You work with the team to create systems that could be rolled out to new locations. Create staffing plans that optimize efficiency and hospitality.
• Goals and Results -- Learn to use tools such as When I Work, Square, and SKULabs to track sales, equipment, and purchases so we can see our year-to-year progress and make goals for the year ahead.
• Other tasks as necessary

Requirements

• Flexible Schedule -- For this full-time role, you have the availability and flexibility to work daytime, evening, and weekend shifts as needed.
• Leadership Experience -- You have at least one year of prior assistant management or leadership experience in a food, retail, or hospitality industry where world-class guest service is essential. You've already dealt with a few tricky situations and have the steady confidence to keep a level head when the team needs you most.
• Technical & Computer Aptitude -- You have the computer skills to develop checklists and training materials, maintain email filters to prioritize your Inbox in your quest for Inbox 0, and check social media for recent reviews.
• Mechanical Know-How -- When the ice machine breaks, or the chocolate-warmer is on the fritz, you can troubleshoot minor issues and interface with service professionals as necessary to ensure minimal downtime.
• Excellent Communication Skills -- This role depends upon maintaining strong relationships across multiple teams and locations. Your strong verbal and written skills make it easy to handle guest issues, respond to emails, lead training programs, and build trust across departments.

Benefits

The benefits and perks continue beyond a robust chocolate and coffee education. Dandelion Chocolate constantly invests in our people and culture. All team members receive medical, vision, and dental benefits as well as the option to enroll in our 401k program. All employees receive paid vacation time, holiday pay, and paid sick time. In addition, our team members enjoy commuter benefits, FSAs, local gym discounts, chocolate tasting opportunities, the chance to travel to origin and our Japan locations, and a range of opportunities to grow and develop within the company.