Job Description:

​

Amara, located at 670 N Midvale Blvd in Madison, WI, is seeking an Assistant General Manager to join our team. 

 

Amara is our take on contemporary coastal Italian cuisine featuring sharable small plates and bites, hand-crafted pastas, and entrées showcasing the bounty of Madison Wisconsin. Our wine list will feature cutting edge Italian and Italian-inspired artisan wines farmed by hand and made with classical methods. Our bar will showcase the art of Italian drinking including aperitifs, negronis, cocktails and espresso​. Amara will open its doors in the late summer of 2022.

 

The name Amara derives from the Ancient Greek ‘Amáranthos’, which means ‘everlasting flower’. Amore in Italian, Amará in Spanish, and Amara in Arabic all refer to love. Yet, Amara in Italian means bitter, conjuring some of the hallmarks of Italian cooking and drinking, where herbs, bitter greens, and digestivi are celebrated for their health benefits and healing botanical qualities. Bitter and sweet are often found together, and at the same time, and couldn't be more relevant to us now as we move forward with purpose and intention seeking balance, healing, health, sustainability, and love.

 

Assistant General Manager - Amara - Madison, WI

 

The Assistant General Manager will, under the direction of Rule No. One Hospitality, our Madison-based hospitality group, create and maintain a culture championing knowledge, excellence, fun, service and approachability (internal and external).  Orientation to our mission and our customer at all times is key.  You will be working with a chef team led by some of the Madison's top talent, including RNO Beverage Director, Caitlyn Nicholson and RNO Culinary Director Jon Nodler, a James Beard Foundation nominated semi-finalist and Executive chef of Food & Wine Magazine’s “#1 Best New Restaurant” in 2019, and RNO Wine Director and partner in Amara, James Juedes.

 

The Assistant General Manager is the right hand to the General Manager and will heavily focus on onsite management & daily operations. This role will troubleshoot issues on the floor as they arise, and be primary support to bar & FOH employees to optimize successful service. All of this entails a complete dedication to Amara’s mission to be a place of gathering, celebrating, treating each other and ourselves well.

 

This position is highly operational, focused largely on organizational and HR demands, but also deeply focused on guest experience, staff training and communication and culture:

 

Daily Operations 

• Perform all Onboarding, Systems and Training, Protocols, Policies in full through Toast/payroll, Homebase, Google Admin, Google Chat, and Google Classroom

• Labor/Weekly Scheduling

• Operations Management Onsite (Toast POS/Toast Payroll/Homebase/ OpenTable/3rd Party Platforms).  This position works with the General Manager in calling all support platforms to troubleshoot issues as needed

 

Guest Experience 

• The Assistant General Manager at Amara acts as the MOD (manager on duty) 2-3 shifts per week

• Always be guest orientated and working for the guest

• Ensure that guests feel welcome at all times and appreciated for their business

• Ensure that food and beverage are regularly served properly and meet Amara’s highest standards 

• Regularly search out moments to give detailed service with personal touches to guarantee guest loyalty. Work with the General Manager on this and help train all Front of House and Bar Leads to also find these opportunities 

 

Staff Training and Communication 

• Work closely with the entire Amara staff to always project positivity and maintain staff morale to achieve the highest performance levels

• Help the GM develop trainings for floor and bar staff 

• Work with the GM to provide food and BWL menu knowledge for all floor staff 

• Train to the importance of recovery and how to react when things go wrong

• Send regular emails to staff to communicate any changes or upcoming events

• Work with the GM to have staff informed and ready for any special event 

 

Company Culture

• Perform semi-annual reviews of hourly FOH & Bar staff alongside the GM

• Give constructive feedback and guidance to bar and FOH staff

• Evaluate hourly staff performance for possible promotions and/or raises

• Assist the General Manager for FOH and bar department level hiring and firing

​

 

Benefits:

• Competitive wages

• A flexible and predictable schedule that is posted two weeks in advance

• 50% dining discount for your friends and family

• Free and healthy GF Vegetarian or Regular staff meal

• Access to Amara's online classroom with training materials, recipes, and checklists.  After full orientation, we offer weekly paid training opportunities to taste wine, spirits and food with industry experts

• Our mission is centered around treating each other and ourselves well through our love of food, drink, and community

• Sustainability must be possible and attainable in our industry!

• All employees are offered health, dental and vision insurance

• Paid time off

• 401k contribution

• The chance to work in a brand new clean facility with state of the art new equipment

• The chance to contribute to one of the most dynamic restaurant groups in the region

​

Our ideal AGM has:

• 1-3+ years of management experience with at least 1 year in a fine dining, corporate, and craft cocktail setting

• A passion for casual fine food and beverage, thrives in a fast-paced, urban, high volume setting

• Enjoys creating profound guest and staff experiences

• Superior administrative and organizational skills

• POS experience - OpenTable and Toast preferred

• High level of communication skills across a multi-tiered organization

• Corporate experience is highly preferred with professional use of email communications as well as proficiency in Google Enterprise (Google Suites, Google Classroom, Google Docs etc.)

• Proven history as a leader, a trainer and a coach

• A love of culture, music, exceptional food, modern drink, and have exquisite style

• A connection to Madison with experience living and working in a Downtown setting and preferably larger metropolitan cities.

• People orientation. Working with people, guests, and understanding the human element is core to what we do

• Problem-solving. Track record with working with staff and guests to quickly problem solve and meet people where they are at with the resources available

• Managing people, building to people’s strengths and meeting them where they’re at. This is especially important given our diverse staff 

• Committed to organization and cleanliness

• A keen eye for creating and maintaining ambiance in the restaurant

• Understand and celebrate the spirit of our mission, which is very much wrapped in terms of who we are and why we do what we do. As an organization we celebrate diversity, inclusion, individualism, craft, culture, community, neighborhood, organizational growth, quality, beauty and pleasure.

• Has obtained, or willing to obtain ServeSafe Manager certification and City of Madison Operator’s License

 

RNO is a mission-driven lifestyle company dedicated to creating spaces for celebrating and treating each other and ourselves well.  We seek to provide warm, fun and an endlessly interesting mix of inspired programming that challenges, invigorates and delights our guests by celebrating our craft, who we are, what we do and what we believe. As a community-driven hospitality management organization, we are active in social causes supporting women, Black, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous communities everywhere. Cook It Forward is a non-profit advocacy arm of Rule No One Hospitality, Inc. with a mission to address ongoing inequities in our food systems. We are all working collectively on social entrepreneurship, social equity, and social justice-- one meal at a time.

​

Our Values:

• Inclusivity.  We will establish a culturally diverse and  inclusive environment, one that specifically supports minorities, all genders, and those historically underrepresented in our industry.

• Humility. We are modest about capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute.

• Effective Collaboration. We are a team centered around positivity, that stands for one message which involves empowering others, empathizing with each other, and uplifting others as a collective.

• Respect and Justice / Health and Well-Being. All team members need to be treated respectfully and fairly.  This pertains to equity in pay, and specific attention to physical/mental health, well-being and safety.

• Positivity and Love of Food and Community. Cooking and serving others is a powerful act of caring and love for one another.  Let us work together to bring our community together through the power of food and drink

 

Pay Rate:

$50-60k annual salary, depending on leadership experience, plus benefits

 

Amara is an equal opportunity employer, with a mission to support women, Black, LGBTQ+ applicants.  As an organization, we support a minimum wage of $16/hour.