Position Overview
Good Food Restaurants is seeking an energetic, creative, collaborative, and experienced culinary leader to join its Columbus-based team. This new position will lead menu innovation, research, and development for, as well as play a key operations role in, an expanding area of the company's portfolio.
The ideal candidate will have a background in menu development, operations, or similar, with a passion and knowledge for food that spans regions, genres, and price points. We're looking for someone as passionate about the nuances of chicken tenders as they are about selecting caviar and local cheeses.
In this role, your culinary and operations homebase will be Sycamore in German Village where you will lead menu development for this charming neighborhood café and restaurant continuously recognized as one of the best in the city. Sycamore will serve as a testing ground for a variety of ideas and initiatives that will affect both its success and the success of other current and future brands in the Good Food Restaurants portfolio. Additionally, this position will have operational responsibility for Sycamore, overseeing the restaurants' leadership and associate team and holding ultimate responsibility for scheduling, staffing, and key financial metrics.
This is not a chef role in any traditional sense. While some time will be devoted to operations and in-store training, the majority of time will be spent on menu development, training, and in collaboration with Good Food Restaurant's leaders across operations, marketing, HR, technology, facilities, and ownership.
At GFR, collaboration and teamwork are critical to our success. The ideal candidate will have a strong creative perspective but also a deep commitment to collaboration, compromise, and shared success.
Requirements
While there is no specific educational or professional background that will necessarily lead to success in this role, strong candidates will likely demonstrate several of the following qualities:
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Proven culinary background in multiple settings with experience in collaborative, creative menu development.
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A passion for food and a knowledge base that extends across geographies, genres, and price points.
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A creative drive and the discipline to turn that creativity into reality.
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A desire to continuously evolve, to adapt to customer preferences, and to align around a shared vision of success.
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Strong understanding of restaurant operations and administration.
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A working knowledge of menu costing and inventory best practices.
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Excellent leadership skills with a focus on team-building and open communication.
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And entrepreneurial spirit and kind, fun, and caring demeanor.
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Adept at managing budgets, resources, and operational efficiency.
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A strategic thinker able to synthesize a range of priorities and inputs and create solutions to hard-to-solve problems.
What we offer
- Sycamore and Good Food Restaurants offer a well-resourced environment, where you will be surrounded by people who care deeply about their work and who are committed to doing things the best of their abilities. Good Food Restaurants offers competitive salary compensation with a full benefits package including healthcare, retirement with company match, and a generous paid time off policy. This role will provide an adaptable schedule with significant autonomy, as well as the opportunity for growth in an evolving organization where the role may become less operational over time as the business continues to scale. Relocation assistance will be provided to candidates outside of the central Ohio area.
To Apply
Please send a cover letter and resume to theaphy@goodfoodrestaurants.com. Candidates are also encouraged to submit any supplemental material that may contribute to an overall picture of their fit for the position.
Sycamore Dining, LLC and Good Food Restaurants is an equal opportunity employer. We offer a welcoming and inclusive environment in service of one another, our employees, the diverse customers we aim to serve, and the communities we call home. We do all of this with kindness, empathy and respect for each other.