Job Description:

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Amara, located at 670 N Midvale Blvd in Madison, WI, is seeking a Host 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.

 

Host - Amara - Madison, WI

 

Customer Service / Sales

• The host is the first impression of the restaurant.  The host will warmly welcome our guests and manage the timely and efficient seating at the venue.

• Always be oriented to the guest, making any possible accommodations to ensure their experience is started off on the best note

• Offer polite, professional and courteous customer service

• Promptly address customer service issues and refer customers to onsite management when necessary

 

Floor Operations & Utilizing OpenTable

• Proficient understanding on how to operate OpenTable software

  • Complete understanding of Amara’s reservation and walk-in policies

  • How to seat a walk-in versus reservation

  • How to properly quote wait-times

  • How to properly create a reservation

  • How to move around reservations to accommodate guest requests

  • Understand when not to take a reservation and to space out inquiries to allow successful service

• Proficient knowledge of table numbers, the seating chart, reservation policy

• How to properly communicate our different seating areas throughout the restaurant

  • Indoors versus outdoors

  • Dining vs bar seating

• Knowing when to put a guest on hold and retrieve onsite management for assistance

• Knowledge of restaurant POS software

• Facilitate to-go orders accordingly through phone orders, 3rd party platforms, etc.

• Prepare room for dining by setting tables

• Perform basic cleaning tasks as needed or directed by supervisor

• Always guiding joining guests to their tables

• Always letting the server know when they’re sat

• Complete closing duties and sidework as per approved checklist

 

Menu and Product Knowledge

• Be knowledgeable about every menu item served: what it tastes of; ingredients, and be able to translate that into ‘selling points’ for each menu item

 

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

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Our ideal Host has:

• 2+ years of serving experience. Casual fine dining experience is a plus.

• The ideal Host has excellent personal qualities, is polite, confident, a great sense of humor and above all, enjoys dealing with people.

• The Host should be warm and genuine using verbiage and vocabulary that is guest-focused and positive

• Able to thrive in a team environment as a reliable and trustworthy player on the floor.

• Hosts need to be able to multitask and remain organized in a fast-paced environment. Staying calm and collected is key.

• The Host, along with all staff members, is expected to be clean, neat and tidy in their personal appearance and also in their working habits; they shall also maintain the highest standards of hygiene in their workplace.

• The Host, along with all staff members, is expected to embody the organizational mission and caring, inclusive, and authentic values in terms of who we are and what we believe.  

 

REPORTING

The role will report to Shift Leads, the Front of House Manager, the Assistant General Manager, and the General Manager of Amara.
 

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.

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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

 

Projected Pay Rate:

$16-$20/hr total compensation, $10/hr base rate + tips

 

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