September 14, 2020

Your bar may serve the craftiest craft cocktails and boast an astounding variety of draft and bottled beers. Your wine selection might be the best in the city. But if you don’t have an excellent bar manager to oversee your beverage operations — that’s a gap you need to address asap.

A great bar manager ensures you’re properly stocked with beer, liquor, wine and other bar essentials — but they do a whole lot more than inventory. Like any restaurant management positioning, bar managers wear a lot of hats. From overseeing staff to interfacing with customers to implementing processes and policies, their work can have a direct impact on your bottom line.

That means finding the right person for the job is critical. Here are the typical bar manager duties and responsibilities, plus some tips for running an efficient, effective recruiting process.

Bar manager duties and responsibilities

Bar manager responsibilities vary from restaurant to restaurant but here are the typical duties associated with this role:

Managing bar operations: This refers to the daily operations needed to run the bar effectively, from overseeing opening and closing duties, to managing the bar’s cash flow, to ensuring excellent customer service.

Ordering inventory: Keeping track of beverages and supplies that need to be ordered based on what’s been sold, along with negotiating contracts with suppliers are all part of the job.

Hiring, training, and overseeing staff: Not only do bar managers need to manage the bar staff, but they also help with hiring and training.

Marketing: A good bar manager leverages the bar’s offerings to support your marketing efforts. For example, they may come up with specials or happy hour events that draw new customers, or they may use marketing channels, like social media, to promote the bar’s unique menu.

Building rapport with your customers: Remember on Cheers when Norm would walk through the door and everyone would yell, “Norm!”? Your bar managers have the power to create that friendly, welcoming environment that leads to a loyal customer base. Good bar managers, and in turn, the bartenders under them, not only keep drinks filled; they strike up conversation, remember familiar faces, and ensure everyone has a positive experience.

How to write a bar manager job description

When you’re writing your bar manager job description, be perfectly clear about your expectations for the position — as well as what your candidates can expect.

Detail the day-to-day duties and responsibilities of your bar manager. What does a typical shift look like? What kind of team will they be managing? Are there specific growth goals or measures of success they should be working toward?
Be specific about the skills and experience level you’re looking for. Are you okay with someone younger who’s just starting out? Or do you need a candidate who has years of experience under their belt?
Research what other local bars and restaurants include in their job descriptions. How can you make your description more competitive? Are there certain perks to the job or technology you’re using that can help you stand out?
Tell them about yourself (or rather, your restaurant). What’s the atmosphere like? What kind of clientele do you serve?
Is there room for career growth in this position? If so, get specific about that.
(For more inspiration: Glassdoor and Indeed offer great examples of what to include in your bar manager job description. ZipRecruiter also offers a great template to work from.)

Bar manager recruitment tips

Once you’ve got your job description finalized, leverage multiple channels to get the word out. Post the description on your website and social media pages, and if you’ve got budget, consider running a few ads on those platforms or sponsoring your posts to increase visibility.

Take advantage of online job forums or networking groups where you can share the position. Also be sure to create in-store signage, and let your team and any local industry networks know that you’re hiring — as those referral sources can often connect you to qualified candidates.

Once you’ve identified and contacted several candidates who look great on paper, set up an in-person or virtual interview. Assess your interviewees for these attributes:

Experience and skill level: Bar managers have a lot of responsibilities and competing priorities. They must be a master multitasker, able to confidently and strategically delegate responsibilities while handling their own administrative duties, all with a bar full of patrons. The more experience they have, the smaller the learning curve there will be. But keep in mind: a more experienced manager may require a higher salary.

Culture fit: Aside from their experience and capabilities, you’ll want to hire someone who’s reliable, professional, easy to work with, and who has the necessary soft skills to manage people and interface with customers. You’ll also want to consider your restaurant culture and the people you serve. Someone who’s a great fit for a trendy dive bar may not be the right fit for a bar at a fine-dining restaurant.

Ability to stay cool under pressure: But many bars move at a fast clip with high customer turnover. You want someone who can handle long shifts, who can think on their feet and who can stay calm under pressure — whether they’re dealing with inventory snafus, drama among team members, or customers who have been over-served.

Passion and creativity: Generally speaking, a bar manager position isn’t a summer job; it’s a career — or at least, part of a hospitality-focused career path. Seek out a bar manager who has a clear passion for the industry and knack for the job.

If you’re looking for the right interview questions to ask, here are 102 to choose from.

Average bar manager salaries

According to Payscale.com, here are the average bar manager salaries (including tips, bonuses, and overtime pay).

An entry-level person with less than one year of experience can bring home around $40,521 a year.
A bar manager with one to four years of experience can make around $41,926 annually.
Someone with five to nine years of bar manager experience can expect to make around $44,234 a year.
Someone with 10-19 years of experience can earn around $42,427 a year.
With 20 or more years, the average bar manager salary is around $48,205 annually.

Of course, there are other factors that play into a bar manager’s salary, including the size of the restaurant, the type of bar, the city/location and annual revenues. For instance, the average bar manager salary in New York City is around $65,000 while in Greenville, North Carolina it’s around $45,000, according to Zippia.com.

A successful bar operation is more than having a top-tier drink menu or a great vibe. Hiring the right bar manager will ensure that everything’s running smoothly at the bar and behind the scenes. So don’t underestimate the impact of a good (or a poor) bar manager: ultimately, they’ll determine the kind of experience your customers have at your bar — and whether they choose to come back.

In case you haven’t heard: ghost kitchens are kind of having a moment.

Also called virtual, cloud, delivery-only, shadow, and dark kitchens, ghost kitchens are a relatively new concept that emerged in the past year or two. But in 2020 — thanks, in large part, to COVID — they’ve become a legitimate and even preferred alternative to starting up a full-fledged restaurant.

Here’s the lowdown on ghost kitchens: what they are, why they’re gaining momentum, and four basic steps to launching your own ghost kitchen.

What’s a ghost kitchen?

Ghost kitchens are essentially restaurants without the dining space. Their focus is to sell and fulfill online food orders for delivery using third-party apps like Grubhub, UberEats, and DoorDash, or with their own delivery operation. As a result, they typically have no visible storefront.

Because the concept is still evolving, there isn’t a hard-and-fast definition of a ghost kitchen.(It’s also worth noting that the industry hasn’t landed on consistent terminology, so phrases that fall under the “ghost kitchen” umbrella — e.g., virtual restaurants — could mean slightly different things, depending on who you ask.) With that being said, there are a few common ways ghost kitchens can be structured.

Using a shared commissary spaces

These ghost kitchen facilities that are not located within a restaurant, so they’re strictly for delivery-only purposes. Several independent brands may use a shared kitchen facility simultaneously, or there may be multiple in-house brands developed and operated by a single management team.

Launching virtual “spin-off” brands

Some dine-in restaurants are launching virtual, delivery-only restaurants, and they’re leveraging their current kitchens to do so. As an example: Chicago-based Frato’s Pizza has always made and served pizza to dine-in customers. But recently, the owner has launched four “spin-off” restaurants from the same kitchen, including a milkshake concept and a grilled-cheese concept. While Frato’s continues business as usual, the four virtual restaurants operate as delivery-only.

Renting out restaurant kitchens

Another trend we’re seeing: some restaurants are renting out their own kitchens to accommodate ghost kitchen brands that need space and equipment, creating an additional revenue stream for establishments that may be experiencing lower volume due to Covid.

Why ghost kitchens are appealing in 2020

Ghost kitchens are gaining traction quickly in 2020 for a myriad of reasons — with Covid leading the pack.

Even in pre-pandemic times, the average American orders out at least once a week, while more than 20% of Generation Z gets delivery more than three times a week. Those numbers are only going up as a result of Covid. Plus, restaurants are operating at reduced capacity, and patrons are more cautious about dining out. Ghost kitchens are a way that restaurants can take advantage of the boom in delivery orders without losing money on unused dining space (and all the costs that come with keeping it up).

Another factor driving the ghost kitchen trend is the rise of the gig economy, in which ghost kitchens can hire freelancers to make deliveries at a fraction of the cost of third-party apps like GrubHub, UberEats, and Postmates.

Rising real estate prices are also contributing to this trend. Why pay tens of thousands of dollars to open up a dine-in experience when you can rent out a much smaller space and hire delivery drivers for much cheaper?

Pros and cons of ghost kitchens

Here are a few of the pros and cons that both restaurant owners and their customers can expect from ghost kitchens.

Pros

Low overhead: As we mentioned above, not only is real estate often cheaper, but ghost restaurants don’t have to invest in the costs of hosting a dine-in experience like furniture, decor, and menu printing costs.
Faster opening times: Ghost kitchens can simply rent out space in existing facilities, so time-to-launch is dramatically decreased.
Convenience: Delivery-only makes it easy for customers to enjoy restaurant-quality food, especially during the pandemic.
Additional revenue streams: Established restaurants have the opportunity to generate additional revenue by renting out extra kitchen space to third-party ghost kitchen brands, or by launching delivery-only spin-offs from their own kitchen.
Flexibility: Ghost kitchens can adapt quickly as market conditions or customer preferences change.

Cons

Additional costs: If you’re an established restaurant adding on a virtual brand, there is an up-front investment involved, should you decide against running your own delivery operation.
Lower-quality customer experience: In the hospitality industry, building customer relationships and loyalty is all about experience. That’s harder to control when you’re running a ghost kitchen.
Brand awareness challenges: Though online visibility can help a restaurant, it also has to compete with the hundreds of other restaurant brands that can be found online. And because they all deliver, this means differentiators (like a prime location) won’t necessarily play into a customer’s decision.

4 basic steps to setting up a ghost kitchen

Interested in setting up your own ghost kitchen? While it’s simpler, in some ways, than setting up a traditional restaurant, it’s also a relatively new concept — which means there’s a lot of uncharted territory. Here are four things to do if you’re considering launching a ghost kitchen.

Do your research: There aren’t a lot of templates for starting up a ghost kitchen, so you may have to get creative when you’re looking for resources. Seek out advice from teams who have been there, done that and learn from their successes (and mistakes).
Define your concept: You don’t have to worry as much about location and ambience, which means your menu is really going to be the star of the show. Who are you competing against? How will you stand out? How will you make your food to-go friendly?
Find your space: When considering where to set up shop, so to speak, location may not matter as much since customers won’t be coming to you. But you do need to think about spaces that are suitable for cooking, whether it’s an existing kitchen space that you rent, a shared space, or your own facility. And if there are going to be multiple vendors using your space, is there ample room for comfortable cooking conditions and the supplies you need to start operation? You’ll also need to think about insurance coverage and safety inspections, among other things.
Create a marketing plan: Once your concept and brand are established, you need to form a marketing plan with a heavy digital focus. Social media, digital ads, and a polished website will all help with this effort.

If you’ve got your heart set on launching a restaurant but are worried about the up-front investment — or if you’re in the business but want to give a new concept a spin: the ghost kitchen model just might be for you.

Day: September 14, 2020

Before Hiring a Bar Manager, Read This