Restaurant Shift Manager – Front of House

Colton's Social House; Clovis (CA); On-site; USD 40,000 - 57,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus opportunities

Job summary

Colton's Social House in Clovis, CA is seeking a Front of House Shift Manager to lead the floor, support the team, and own the guest experience during shifts.

You will oversee FOH operations, collaborate with BOH, and ensure service standards from opening to closing. The role emphasizes judgment, communication, and accountability to keep the restaurant operating at its best.

Qualifications

• Experience leading Front of House teams.
• Ability to manage multiple stations during a shift.
• Strong guest service and problem-solving skills.
• Proven ability to train and coach staff.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the entire restaurant during assigned shifts.
• Lead FOH operations, including servers and bartenders.
• Open and close procedures and ensure readiness.
• Monitor service pacing and guest satisfaction.
• Manage staffing, breaks, and labor to protect standards.
• Handle guest concerns with professionalism and urgency.
• Coach and hold team accountable in real time.

Skills

Leadership

Staffing

Guest service

Communication

Job description

SHIFT MANAGER, FRONT OF HOUSE - Lead the Floor. Support the Team. Own the Experience.

At Colton's Social House, Social Therapy is created by an entire restaurant working together. During a shift, someone has to be looking beyond any one table, station, or task - paying attention to the guest experience, the pace of service, the needs of the team, and the details that determine whether the restaurant is operating at its best.

Our Front of House Shift Managers are responsible for leading that experience.

This is a Front of House-focused leadership position with responsibility for the restaurant as a whole. While much of your hands-on support will happen on the floor and at Expo, you are responsible for managing the full operation during your shift—including Hosts, Servers, Bar, Expo, Prep, Cook’s Line, and Dish.

That responsibility begins before the doors open and continues until the restaurant is properly closed. Shift Managers prepare the restaurant and team for service, lead the operation as conditions change, manage staffing and labor, protect our food and service standards, handle guest concerns, oversee employee checkouts, and leave the restaurant ready for what comes next.

Managing a shift requires more than knowing restaurant operations. It requires judgment, awareness, communication, consistency, and the ability to prioritize. You need to recognize what matters most, make decisions, give direction, step in when support is needed, and follow through until the job is actually complete.

You’re not just responsible for getting through the shift. You’re responsible for what happens throughout it.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Oversee the entire restaurant during assigned shifts, including Front of House, Bar, Expo, Prep, Cook’s Line, and Dish, with more hands‑on support typically concentrated in Front of House and Expo.


• Lead the floor and actively support Servers, Hosts, Bartenders, Barbacks, and Expo, while maintaining management oversight of BOH employees and operations.


• Complete Manager opening responsibilities and ensure the restaurant and team are clean, stocked, organized, staffed, informed, and prepared for service.


• Monitor restaurant flow, seating, service timing, Kitchen and Bar ticket times, staffing, food and beverage quality, and guest needs, adjusting priorities and team positioning as conditions change.


• Oversee Prep, Cook’s Line, and Dish operations, including productivity, cleanliness, staffing, breaks, ticket times, product needs, food quality, and anything affecting service.


• Maintain a strong presence at Expo, monitoring ticket flow and food quality, facilitating FOH/BOH communication, and taking control of the Window when needed.


• Maintain awareness of Bar operations and step in with direction or support when service volume requires it.


• Anticipate problems and act early - identifying bottlenecks, staffing needs, service breakdowns, safety concerns, or communication gaps before they have a larger impact.


• Table‑touch and handle guest concerns, complaints, and service recovery with professionalism, urgency, and appropriate judgment.


• Lead, coach, and hold FOH and BOH employees accountable in real time while recognizing strong performance and reinforcing expectations consistently.


• Manage restaurant‑wide staffing, labor, breaks, employee phasing, call‑outs, and shift coverage while protecting service standards.


• Maintain standards for cleanliness, food safety, employee and guest safety, organization, equipment, and overall facility readiness, addressing or escalating concerns appropriately.


• Complete applicable cash handling, POS functions, comps, voids, discounts, shift reporting, documentation, and other Manager controls accurately.


• Oversee employee checkouts and verify assigned responsibilities are completed before approving employees to leave.


• Lead closing procedures and ensure FOH and BOH areas are cleaned, stocked, organized, secured, documented, and properly reset for what comes next.


• Make appropriate real‑time operational decisions within Manager authority and know when a situation requires escalation to senior leadership.


• Communicate important guest, employee, operational, product, maintenance, safety, and financial information clearly and promptly to the Management Team.


• Step into operational work when needed without losing sight of the larger shift. Your job is not necessarily to be the busiest person in the restaurant-it is to make the restaurant operate better.


• Identify opportunities to improve our systems, processes, training, communication, organization, and overall operation—and help turn those observations into action.


• Lead with accountability, follow-through, and an ownership mindset. There is no \"that\'s not my job.\"

COMPENSATION & SCHEDULING

Training Rate: $24/hour

Post-Training / 90-Day Period: $25+/hourbased on performance

Shift Managers are guaranteed a minimum of 35 hours per week, scheduled across at least five shifts, including a combination of days, nights, weekends, and holidays based on business needs.

Schedules are written monthly and generally provided by the 15th of the preceding month. Adjustments may occasionally be necessary based on staffing, business levels, or operational needs.

Evening, weekend, and holiday availability is expected.

Bonus Opportunity: Managers may also be eligible for performance‑based bonuses based on individual performance and the overall health and profitability of the restaurant. Bonuses are not guaranteed.

LEAD THE SHIFT YOU ACTUALLY HAVE

Restaurant shifts rarely unfold exactly as expected.

Volume changes. Someone calls out. A rush arrives earlier than anticipated. A guest has a concern. The Kitchen gets hit all at once. Expo starts backing up while a Host needs direction and a Server is waiting for a Manager.

That\u2019s when management matters most.

You\u2019ll learn Colton\'s systems, standards, policies, service expectations, menu and beverage programs, and the responsibilities of the positions you\'ll be managing. But successful Shift Managers have to move beyond simply knowing how things are supposed to work.

You need to be able to read the restaurant, determine what matters most, make a decision, communicate a clear direction, and adjust as circumstances change.

That also means understanding the difference between helping and managing. Sometimes the restaurant needs you running food or clearing tables. Sometimes it needs you at Expo. Sometimes it needs you addressing something in the Kitchen. And sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is stay out of the task itself, see the bigger picture, and make sure the right people are focused on the right things.

The goal isn\u2019t to be the busiest person in the restaurant.

It\u2019s to use your judgment, leadership, and operational awareness to help the entire restaurant perform better.

That expectation lines up especially well with the actual 90-day benchmarks for the role: independently leading opens and closes, controlling labor, making decisions, holding standards, maintaining floor awareness, handling guest recovery, supporting team positioning, and reliably completing administrative responsibilities.

LEADERSHIP AT COLTON\'S

At Colton\'s, a management title doesn\u2019t place someone outside the standards we expect from everyone else. It increases their responsibility for protecting them.

Our Shift Managers help set the tone for the restaurant around them. How you communicate under pressure, respond when something goes wrong, support the team, handle a difficult guest, and make decisions when the shift doesn\u2019t go according to plan all have an impact.

That matters because Social Therapy isn\u2019t created by one interaction or one position. It takes an entire restaurant working together to create an experience that leaves people feeling better than when they arrived—and our Managers are responsible for helping bring that together.

We're looking for leaders who can hold a standard without losing the person, give clear direction, make thoughtful decisions, and understand that accountability and support belong together. Leadership sometimes means stepping in and helping; other times it means coaching, redirecting, making a difficult decision, or addressing something that would be easier to overlook.

We also expect our Managers to look beyond the immediate shift. Strong leaders notice opportunities to improve the restaurant, take initiative, bring forward solutions, and follow through rather than simply accepting that something has always been done a certain way.

Social Therapy is the experience we want to create. Our Managers help set the standard that makes it possible.

Leadership here isn\u2019t about being above the work. It\u2019s about taking greater responsibility for the outcome.