Long Road Distillers, known for their world class distilled spirits and having the leading cocktail program in West Michigan is in need of someone to helm the kitchen program at their world headquarters and flagship location. You didn’t know Long Road had a kitchen? While we love great spirits and innovative cocktails, food is an integral part of the experience we enjoy sharing with our guests.

Let’s be real – we have high expectations. We need someone who cares about what they do and who loves to develop and execute a menu of a manageable size using fresh, local ingredients. They must do this with a small team but in a reasonably new kitchen of decent size (with air conditioning) with all the tools and resources necessary to do the job well. Food cost: it needs to be kept under control. Labor cost: you guessed it, gotta keep that under control as well. Staff: you have a small team that you are responsible for hiring, motivating, managing, training and mentoring.

About the menu: You are the chef and we want you to make great food and dishes that guests love to eat. You know the drill – if people don’t enjoy what’s on the menu, then we aren’t doing it right. At the same time, every chef wants to spread their creative wings a bit. You can do both at Long Road: make fun, creative and approachable food while also creating some dishes that challenge our guests to try something interesting or new. Oh and we make super cool spirits, and love when they can be incorporated into our menu items in thoughtful ways. The menu is not huge, 6-8 appetizers or share plates, a couple of salads, maybe a soup when its soup season, 3-4 handhelds, 3-4 entrees, a dessert or two, a weekly burger feature and hopefully a weekend special.

We also have a private event space in our upstairs called The Rickhouse. Our kitchen provides a limited catering menu to serve event guests. It’s at max 120 people, so never that huge of an event. Lots of corporate stuff, birthday parties, fundraisers and yes, weddings. We’re excited to extend our services to larger groups through this space, and it certainly helps with cost of goods and labor costs.

We are only open five days a week, so you are pretty much guaranteed to get two days off back to back every week. It’s a salaried position, you get paid time off, we offer benefits like health insurance, retirement match, a workwear reimbursement and employee mental health support (for all employees). Our hours of service are from 4-11 Tuesday-Friday and 12-11 on Saturday, no breakfast, no brunch, and lunch on Saturday is just the regular menu.

We love offering opportunities for people to grow with our team. If you think this sounds like an opportunity for you, send us your resume.

• Proven culinary experience leading a kitchen or a team within a kitchen
• Demonstrated ability of kitchen management
• Ability to work independently, to divide responsibilities and monitor progress with the kitchen staff as well as work directly with the kitchen team daily.
• Outstanding communication and leadership skills
• Passion for following culinary trends and efficient kitchen processes
• Serve Safe Food Protection Manager Certification or be able to acquire it within 30 days of the start of employment.
• Understanding of Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Calendar, GMail, etc).

Essential Duties and Responsibilities to include (but are not limited to):

• Execute, control and direct the preparation of all food which includes necessary process and other activities needed for food safety and quality control.
• Cost, create, construct and execute food menus with new or existing menu items to ensure quality, value and enjoyment from our guests.
• Ensure finished plates are of standard before being presented to a guest.
• Manage relationships with vendor partners to ensure quality and diversity of products being served while also aligning with food cost expectations.
• Manage ordering to ensure appropriate inventory, planning for depletion and rotations of stock while limiting waste.
• Ability to budget kitchen inventory, successful cost all dishes prior to menu inclusion and track waste to control food cost.
• Arrange for repairs of equipment and required inspections when necessary
• Problem solve when necessary while working with management to address any concerns as they arise.
• Hiring, manage and train kitchen staff
• Oversee the work of the kitchen team, helping grow their skills, keep them on task and ensuring work is done in an efficient and quality manner
• Schedule and manage staff hours, budgeting kitchen labor based upon anticipated sales levels which includes seasonal and event fluctuations
• Comply with sanitation regulations and safety standards
• Serve as the lead point of contact for kitchen operations with Health Department/Michigan Department of Agriculture
• Maintain a team environment with a culture of respect, that values diversity and executes at a proficient level necessary for success.