Food & Beverage Manager - Museum Cafe

Who We Are 

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18^th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.   

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301-acre restored colonial capital with 89 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life. The Foundation also owns and operates two world-class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, The Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library. 

Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes. Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally. 

 About the Position 

The Food and Beverage Manager (FBM) at the Museum Café of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg is responsible for the execution of the daily operations of the kitchen and servery operation. The FBM provides leadership to set an example of service and quality for the staff. The FBM will oversee hiring, training plans, counseling, and employee evaluations to build a skilled and motivated team that consistently provides outstanding products and guest service. Collaborates with the Art Museum Leadership Team to ensure efficient operations and consistent management of the food and beverage outlet 

Essential Functions: 

• Manages day-to-day leadership and development, completed shift assignments based on job classification and establishes performance evaluations from each shift where needed to include all F&B employees. Develops/adjusts weekly work schedules based on forecasted business needs.
• Collaborates with the Colonial Williamsburg Culinary and Front of House leadership teams to participate in all Food and Beverage tastings and provides constructive feedback designed to satisfy the most discriminating guest tastes.
• Collaborates with the Art Museums Leadership Team to ensure exceptional guest service in all areas of the operation. Conducts daily, weekly, and monthly performance maintenance schedules with custodial and maintenance teams to ensure clean, orderly, and proper function of all front and back of house areas.
• Implements the production of new restaurant menu and the training of staff.
• Hire, trains, schedules, counsels, and evaluates all supervisors, and hourly staff to provide the highest levels of proficiency, efficiency, and confidence in excellent service standards for guests. Develops training plans for staff to provide guests with all information requested about menu items, food preparation, and general knowledge of Colonial Williamsburg. Conducts audits for each job classification to evaluate standards. Recommends evaluations to management based on audit findings.
• Facilitates daily lineups, weekly, and monthly meetings with supervisors, and hourly staff to ensure all
• employees are aware of goals, objectives, and activities within the department.
• Ensures staff are familiar with and can describe daily specials as well as regular menu items in detail set forth in training manuals. Conducts compliance trainings, i.e., alcohol awareness, tip reporting, and food handlers.
• Ensures compliance by all team members to Company policies and procedures, local and state regulations. Maintains company logs based on established policies and procedures.
• Ensures all staff and facilities are in accordance to the Virginia Department of Health Standards.
• Regularly reviews and evaluates the degree of customer feedback of the Outlet offerings and guest service and recommends to management new service policies whenever sales, customer feedback or trends in the marketplace necessitates such action.
• Processes reservations, financial transactions, and bank audits as necessary. Analyzes operational problems and established procedures to alleviate problems, i.e., cashier over/short
• Monitoring equipment needs, menu abstracts, job descriptions, reviewing and editing daily time entries, reviewing overtime reports, and adjusting staff hours as needed. Controlling costs, guest responses and monitor other supply levels, count inventory and purchase orders as necessary to ensure efficient operations, in consideration of budget.
• Assists the Marketing Team in developing marketing plans and strategies for the outlet.
• Develop, train and implement suggestive selling strategies for hourly staff.
• Attends meetings, and training sessions and prepares summary reports as required.
• Determines the music in the dinning room, ensures it I on and off for the day.
• Implementation and maintenance of the beverage program. Keeps up with industry trends to ensure a well-suited beverage experience consistently exceeds guest expectations.
• Coordinates the planning, booking, and execution of special dining programs/events and updates POS and OpenTable (when applicable).
• Implements the training of the J-1 Internship Program. Evaluates the hourly interns as necessary and adjusts their training as needed

Supervision to be Exercised:   Chef de Partie, Lead Café Worker, Café Worker, General Utility Worker, J1 Interns

Required and Preferred Education and Experience: 

Required:

· 2-year degree in hotel/restaurant management or equivalent.

· Minimum 5-7 years’ experience in Hospitality or equivalent experience.

· Minimum 2 years of supervision in a similar setting.

Preferred:

· 4-5 years Culinary leadership experience.

Qualifications:  

· A passion for excellent service execution and the ability to lead a team to these standards.

· Strong knowledge of wine, spirits and beer and culinary arts.

· Thorough knowledge and understanding of Restaurant and kitchen operations.

· Skilled in planning and executing special functions.

· Understanding of hotel campus operations including Front Desk, Housekeeping, Engineering, Sales & Marketing and Banquets and Catering.

· Inventory maintenance and control.

· Thorough understanding of current Restaurant and Hotel technology, including PMS, POS, OpenTable, GL, Labor Management, and purchasing software.

· Skilled in staff scheduling, implementing payroll and inventory cost controls methods.

· Skilled in providing guest service including personalized service, steps of service and service recovery.

· Ability to work closely with culinary and servery teams to deliver an exceptional product across all offerings.

· Ability to develop and implement employee training programs, coach and counsel, mentor and develop staff to the desired levels professionalism

· Ability to find solutions in the midst of challenges while maintaining composure and delivering the highest level of guest service.

· Make independent decisions which are generally guided by established policy and procedures.

· Work flexible schedules, including nights, weekends, and holidays.

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

· Relentless attention to detail and devotion to excellence.