Schedule
Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, SaturdayShifts: Early AM, Day
Required Years of Experience
3 years
Job Details
Lead Barista · Common Circuit Café · Gowanus, Brooklyn
- Reports to: General Manager
- Where: 240 Third Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn. Opening soon.
- Schedule: Full-time, five shifts a week, mostly opens. The bar opens at 6 AM. You start before we open, so you build the bar with us.
About the role
Common Circuit is an all-day café: an espresso bar and a slow bar, a matcha program, house-made syrups, and a kitchen rooted in the Mediterranean. Our promise to the neighborhood is simple: strangers in the morning, regulars by Friday.
We're hiring our first Lead Barista before we open. You'll set the standard every drink is held to and teach it. You'll lock our espresso recipes, finish the specs for our syrups, foams and matcha, and train the founding team. Then you'll keep it all calibrated, every morning, while working the bar beside them.
You coach; our GM manages. Hiring, schedules and reviews stay with the GM, so your shifts are spent where they count: on the bar, with guests.
What you'll do
- Dial in espresso at open and hold every drink to spec through the rush
- Finalize our espresso, slow bar, matcha, syrup and foam recipes before we open, all by weight
- Run the Circuit Program: pre-opening training, monthly cuppings, and coaching every barista toward five certifications
- Work the bar most of every shift: the regulars, the 7 AM rush, the 3 PM calm
- Keep the grinders, espresso machine and water filtration clean and calibrated, and catch problems before they become breakdowns
- Order coffee, milk and bar supplies against par levels
- Be the first person a new barista asks, and the calm one when the line is out the door
Who we're looking for
- 3 years behind a bar, at least 1 of them in specialty coffee
- You've trained other baristas, formally or not
- You can dial in by taste and explain why a shot is off
- Calm in a rush, warm with strangers, patient with new teammates
- Available for early mornings, including weekends
- Able to stand for a full shift, lift 40 lb, and work safely around hot equipment
Pay, stated plainly
- Base pay: $25.00 to $28.00 an hour, before tips, set by experience.
- Tips, on top: pooled weekly and split by hours worked. We publish our average tips per hour every month.
Learning and benefits
- $1,000 a year learning allowance from day one, for SCA courses, competitions and classes you choose
- 40 hours of paid safe and sick leave a year
- Shift drink, staff meal, and coffee to take home
- Paid training, including before we open
- NYC Food Protection Certificate exam, paid by us
How to apply
Email [email protected] with your resume and two short answers: a drink you'd put on our menu and why, and a barista you trained and what changed for them. We read every one.
Common Circuit is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background, identity and ability.
Compensation Details
Compensation: Salary/Hourly ($25.00 - $28.00)
Benefits & Perks: Paid Time Off
Required Skills
Leadership
Training and Development
Attention to Detail
Time Management
Customer Service
Problem Solving
Team Collaboration
Adaptability
Read more
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Cafe
Common Circuit is not another Brooklyn coffee shop.
Common Circuit is a new independent specialty café and all-day food concept opening in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
We’re building something with the standards of a serious restaurant, the speed and discipline of a high-volume café, and the warmth of a neighborhood institution.
Our program brings together exceptional specialty coffee, premium matcha, a chef-driven food menu, thoughtful grab-and-go, and a strong afternoon offering—all inside a design-forward space rooted in Brooklyn industrial character and warm hospitality.
Coffee is being built around Parlor Coffee, precision espresso, batch brew, cold coffee, matcha, signature beverages and a disciplined approach to consistency and execution.
The kitchen is compact, focused and ambitious. The menu moves from elevated breakfast and fast commuter food into sandwiches, bowls and afternoon dishes, with globally influenced flavors and ingredients designed to cross-utilize intelligently. The goal is not a massive menu. It is a focused menu executed exceptionally well, every time.
The Bar:La Marzocco Linea PB AV, Mahlkönig E65S GbW (Grind-by-Weight), Puqpress.
The Kitchen: Rational iCombi Pro, Vulcan Chrome Griddle, Merrychef conneX12.
We’re building the opening team.
We’re looking for people who care deeply about their craft and want more than another shift behind a bar or on a line.
We value people who are:
• obsessed with quality and consistency
• fast without becoming careless
• clean, organized and disciplined
• genuinely hospitable
• curious and always improving
• calm under pressure
• accountable to their teammates
• proud of the details guests may never notice
• excited to help establish systems, standards and culture from day one
Common Circuit is being built for the long term. We want the people who join us early to have the opportunity to grow with the business, take ownership and help shape what it becomes.
No ego. No shortcuts. No mediocrity disguised as experience.
Just great ingredients, serious technique, warm hospitality, disciplined execution and a team that takes pride in doing things exceptionally well.
Gowanus, Brooklyn. Opening soon.
