General Manager

Arootah; Ramsey (NJ); On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

The Mindful Café in Ramsey, NJ is seeking an experienced General Manager to lead daily operations, strengthen the coffee and beverage program, and drive sustainable profitability. This hands-on leadership role requires managing staff, implementing systems, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

The GM will oversee financial performance, labor and inventory, beverage quality, and catering/events, while maintaining the neighborhood café vibe and high service standards.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of restaurant/food-service experience, including management.
• 3+ years in a meaningful management role.
• Experience scheduling labor, inventory, and ordering.
• Understanding of food costs, margins and profitability.
• Strong customer-service and hospitality experience.
• Food-safety knowledge or willingness to obtain certification.

Responsibilities

• Improve financial performance toward profitability.
• Deliver exceptional customer experience with coffee/beverage focus.
• Build, train, and lead a strong, accountable team.
• Create SOPs and systems for consistent daily operations.
• Oversee front-of-house operations, staffing and scheduling.
• Maintain beverage quality, equipment care and inventory control.
• Oversee catering and private-event execution.

Skills

Team leadership

Customer service

Barista skills

Operations management

Staff training

Problem-solving

Food safety

Tools

POS systems

Job description

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.

Business Performance & Profitability

A major objective of this position is to materially improve the financial performance of the café.

Working with the owner and chef, the General Manager will:

• 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.

The General Manager will not be expected to single-handedly guarantee profitability, but will be expected to take ownership of the financial and operational factors within their control and demonstrate measurable improvement.

Coffee & Beverage Excellence

Coffee and beverages are an important part of The Mindful Café experience.

The General Manager should have meaningful coffee-shop or specialty-beverage experience and be able to develop a high-performing beverage operation.

Responsibilities include:

• 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.

Strong barista skills are highly preferred. A candidate who is not already highly proficient must have the ability and commitment to become fully trained.

Operations & Systems

The General Manager will oversee day-to-day café operations and create the systems needed for consistent execution.

This includes:

• 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.

The manager should continuously ask:What can we improve, simplify, standardize or do more efficiently?

Team Leadership

This is a hands-on leadership role. The General Manager must be willing to make food, prepare beverages, take orders, serve customers, clean, restock and work alongside the team when needed.

We want a leader who combineshigh standards with kindness and respect.

The manager will:

• 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.

Routine issues should be handled independently. The manager should also have the judgment to recognize when owner involvement is appropriate.

We are looking for someone with a proven track record, not simply someone ready for their first management opportunity.

Required:

• 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.

Strong customer-service and hospitality experience.

Especially valuable experience:

• 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.

The General Manager and Chef are peer leaders with complementary responsibilities. The Chef leads culinary preparation and kitchen execution; the General Manager leads overall daily operations, front-of-house performance, staffing, customer experience, systems and business performance.

The General Manager will have meaningful authority over routine daily operations. Major employment decisions, compensation, significant purchases, pricing, major menu changes, policies and overall business direction remain subject to owner approval.