Restaurant Manager Jobs in Los Angeles, CA

General Store ManagerAbout Crustees

Crustees is a Los Angeles-based café and bakery specializing in savory pies, sweet pies, desserts, chili, gumbo, beverages, and other comfort-food favorites. In addition to our brick-and-mortar restaurant, Crustees operates wholesale accounts with local grocery stores and delis, participates in farmers markets and events, and provides catering services.

As Crustees continues to grow, we are seeking a strong General Store Manager who can lead the day-to-day operation of our flagship location while helping build the systems, standards, and team necessary for continued expansion.

About the Position

The General Store Manager is responsible for the overall performance and daily operation of Crustees. This is a hands-on leadership position requiring strong business judgment, operational discipline, exceptional people-management skills, and the ability to maintain high standards without constant oversight from ownership.

The General Manager will lead the store team, manage labor and scheduling, maintain operational and food-safety standards, control inventory and costs, drive sales, and ensure an exceptional customer experience.

The ideal candidate does not simply maintain the restaurant — they actively identify opportunities to improve its performance.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, manage, motivate, and hold the entire store team accountable to Crustees standards.
• Recruit, interview, onboard, train, develop, and supervise employees.
• Manage and develop Assistant Managers, supervisors, leads, FOH staff, and BOH staff.
• Conduct employee coaching, performance evaluations, corrective action, and disciplinary conversations when necessary.
• Establish clear expectations and ensure policies and procedures are consistently followed.
• Build a professional, productive, respectful, and accountable workplace culture.
• Identify high-performing employees for additional responsibility and advancement.
• Maintain appropriate staffing levels for business needs.
• Address employee performance and attendance issues promptly.

Daily Store Operations

• Take ownership of the successful day-to-day operation of the restaurant.
• Ensure opening, closing, production, cleaning, cash-handling, and food-safety procedures are completed correctly.
• Maintain excellent FOH and BOH execution throughout each shift.
• Ensure the restaurant is clean, organized, properly stocked, and guest-ready at all times.
• Monitor product quality, presentation, freshness, labeling, dating, FIFO, and proper storage.
• Ensure production levels support restaurant, catering, wholesale, and farmers-market demand.
• Troubleshoot operational problems and make sound decisions without requiring constant direction from ownership.
• Be available to step into operational positions or cover shifts when necessary to maintain business continuity.

Scheduling & Labor Management

• Create and maintain weekly employee schedules based on projected business needs.
• Control labor costs while maintaining adequate staffing and service standards.
• Monitor attendance, punctuality, overtime, meal periods, rest periods, and scheduling compliance.
• Make staffing adjustments based on sales volume, production requirements, call-outs, and operational needs.
• Maintain compliance with applicable California and Los Angeles labor requirements.

Sales, Financial Performance & Business Growth

• Understand and take ownership of store sales and operating performance.
• Monitor daily and weekly sales and identify opportunities to increase revenue.
• Manage labor, food costs, waste, inventory, and other controllable expenses.
• Review key performance indicators and communicate results and concerns to ownership.
• Identify opportunities to improve store profitability and operational efficiency.
• Work with ownership to establish and achieve sales, labor, customer-service, and operational goals.
• Support promotions, seasonal initiatives, catering, wholesale, farmers markets, and other revenue channels.
• Encourage strong suggestive selling and upselling throughout the FOH team.

Inventory & Vendor Management

• Monitor inventory levels and ensure appropriate product and supply levels are maintained.
• Oversee ordering and receiving of food, packaging, cleaning supplies, and operational materials.
• Maintain accurate inventory counts.
• Monitor waste, spoilage, overproduction, shortages, and product discrepancies.
• Communicate and coordinate with vendors, suppliers, wholesale customers, sales representatives, and service providers.
• Identify opportunities to improve purchasing efficiency and control costs.

Customer Experience

• Maintain a consistently high standard of hospitality and customer service.
• Ensure employees properly greet, assist, and engage customers.
• Monitor order accuracy and speed of service.
• Professionally resolve customer complaints and service-recovery situations.
• Review customer feedback and implement corrective action when recurring issues are identified.
• Lead by example by being visible, approachable, professional, and customer-focused.

Food Safety, Compliance & Facility Standards

• Maintain compliance with all applicable health department, food-safety, sanitation, licensing, workplace-safety, and employment requirements.
• Ensure proper food temperatures, storage, labeling, dating, rotation, cleaning, and sanitation procedures are consistently followed.
• Maintain readiness for health inspections at all times.
• Ensure employees follow company policies regarding uniforms, hygiene, food handling, safety, breaks, attendance, and workplace conduct.
• Identify maintenance and repair needs and coordinate solutions promptly.

Communication & Accountability

• Serve as the primary day-to-day operational liaison between ownership and the store team.
• Provide ownership with regular updates regarding sales, labor, staffing, inventory, operational challenges, customer feedback, and significant incidents.
• Communicate company changes, expectations, promotions, and procedures clearly to employees.
• Maintain accurate records and documentation.
• Follow through on assignments and ensure delegated responsibilities are completed.
• Bring solutions — not simply problems — to ownership.

Qualifications

• Previous restaurant, café, bakery, hospitality, or food-service management experience strongly preferred.
• Previous General Manager, Assistant General Manager, Restaurant Manager, or comparable leadership experience preferred.
• Strong leadership and people-management skills.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Ability to understand labor percentages, food costs, sales performance, inventory, waste, and profitability.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• High level of maturity, professionalism, dependability, and accountability.
• Ability to lead both FOH and BOH employees.
• Ability to work independently and make sound operational decisions.
• Comfortable working in a growing small-business environment where responsibilities may evolve.
• Ability to work weekends, holidays, and other high-volume periods as required.
• Ability to cover operational shifts when necessary.
• Food safety certification as required by applicable law.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Crustees General Manager creates a store that operates at a high level whether or not the owner is physically present.

The team is properly staffed and trained. Labor is controlled. Product is available and properly prepared. Orders are accurate. Customers receive excellent service. The restaurant is clean and organized. Problems are identified and resolved quickly. Employees understand expectations and are held accountable.

Most importantly, the General Manager should create an operation that allows ownership to focus increasingly on the growth of Crustees rather than managing every detail of the restaurant's daily operation.

Pay: $69,917.59 - $75,201.83 per year

Work Location: In person