At Winter Santa Cruz, LLC we are focused on the design, development, and operation of hospitality brands that, at their core, are about bringing people together. For us, great hospitality is about quality, elegance, style, and fun. We exude a sense of joy in hosting, setting the stage for our guests to have exceptional experiences.
Position: Head Bartender
Reports To: General Manager/Beverage Director
Status: Non- Exempt
The Head Bartender at Obvio New York leads the bar team and oversees all aspects of the bar operation, ensuring exceptional beverage quality, guest service, DOH compliance, and adherence to the standards of the company. The Head Bartender will also be responsible for leading beverage service for all areas of the bar and dining room. This role will prepare and serve alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, including our curated cocktails and wine selection as well as providing service to our guests wishing to enjoy food and drinks.
Duties/Responsibilities:
- Supervise, train, and mentor bartenders and bar backs on cocktail techniques, product knowledge, service standards, and operational procedures.
- Lead pre-shift bar meetings to communicate specials, focuses, and operational updates.
- Foster a positive, collaborative, and high-performance team environment within the bar.
- Act as the primary point person for the bar team, liaising effectively with management and the kitchen.
- Take primary responsibility for bar inventory management, including regular stock counts (liquor, batches, juices, wine, beer, mixers, garnishes, supplies).
- Oversee the receiving and proper storage of all bar deliveries, including keeping the liquor room organized at all times.
- Execute and monitor procedures to minimize waste, spoilage, and variance.
- Collaborate with management on the development and refinement of the cocktail menu and overall beverage program.
- Ensure consistency in drink preparation, recipes, pour counts, and presentation across the entire bar team.
- Stay current with industry trends, new spirits, craft cocktail techniques, and local NYC bar scene developments.
- Conduct regular quality checks on beverages served.
Operational Excellence & Compliance:
- Oversee the daily opening, closing, and running procedures for the bar, ensuring checklists are completed accurately by the team.
- Ensure the bar area, including storage, is maintained to the highest standards of cleanliness, organization, and sanitation, exceeding DOH requirements.
- Manage the maintenance of bar equipment, reporting any malfunctions promptly.
- Act as the lead for ensuring all bar operations comply with NYC regulations, including DOH and SLA (State Liquor Authority) guidelines.
- Troubleshoot operational issues as they arise behind the bar.
- Handle escalated guest complaints or complex service recovery situations related to the bar with professionalism and autonomy.
- Act as the lead host behind the bar, ensuring all guests receive an exceptional and memorable experience. Provide each guest with a friendly welcome and farewell.
- Maintain and instill in the team an extensive knowledge of all bar products offering and cocktails recipes. You should be able to create any cocktails from the list, as well as international cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, coffee and soft beverages to the standards of the Obvio Brand.
- Ensure that the bar back is completing their duties on time and to standards of service.
- Ensure that all set up and breakdown bar procedures are followed by the bar back and yourself, referring to and completing the opening and closing checklists.
- Maintain a gracious, pleasant and friendly attitude, while contributing to a teamwork-based work environment.
- Responsible for the guest experience and will quickly address any needs from the guest.
- Provide each guest with a friendly welcome and farewell to ensure a positive and memorable visit.
- Must ensure the bar team has comprehensive knowledge of wine styles and grape varietals. Knowledge on all wine by the glass offerings.
- Must ensure the bar team has comprehensive knowledge of menu items, ingredients, allergens and preparations and able to communicate thoroughly to our guests.
- Ensure Toast POS is up to date and accurate at all times and inform a manager of any changes needed.
- Provide information to management to update guest profiles in OpenTable.
Qualifications:
- NYC Food Handlers license preferred, but not required.
- At least 5 years' experience in a high volume environment and/or working with a craft cocktail program
- Experience in fine dining or casual fine dining is preferred
- Fluent in both written and spoken English
- Existing knowledge of food, wine, spirits, cocktails, beer
- Strong knowledge of dietary allergies
- Commitment to excellence
- Desire to learn
- Ability to work cleanly and maintain attention to detail
Physical Demands:
- Involves standing most of the time, as well as climbing stairs repeatedly. Also involves repeated reaching with arms and hands, carrying objects less than 20 lbs.
- May include possible lifting and moving objects of 40lbs or more.
