Barista

Barista · Common Circuit Café · Gowanus, Brooklyn

• Reports to: Lead Barista and General Manager
• Where: 240 Third Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn. Opening soon.
• Schedule: Full-time and part-time. We're open 6 AM to 7 PM, seven days a week, so early mornings and weekends are part of the job.

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.

A barista here practises three crafts. Coffee, made precisely every time. Hospitality, the kind that remembers your name and your order by Thursday. And the café itself: the room, the rhythm of a 7 AM rush, the calm of 3 PM. You are the person who decides whether a guest thinks "good coffee" or "this is my place now."

What you'll do

• Pull espresso and steam milk to spec, dial in at open, and keep every drink consistent through the rush
• Brew our slow-bar coffees and explain each one in a sentence
• Build drinks from our house syrups, foams and matcha program, by weight
• Learn our regulars: names, orders, the day they usually come in
• Read the room: notice who's waiting, who needs help choosing, who wants to be left alone
• Fix a mistake with grace before the guest has to ask
• Open and close the café, keep it spotless, and follow NYC food safety rules
• Support your teammates in the rush and hold each other to the standard

Who we're looking for

• 1 year of café or restaurant experience preferred. Hospitality talent and drive to learn matter more than years
• Calm under pressure, and warm with strangers
• Proud of details: clean bar, level milk, the right name on the cup
• Open to feedback, and eager to get measurably better
• Able to stand for a full shift, lift 40 lb, and work safely around hot equipment

How we train you

• About two weeks of paid training before we open, run by our Lead Barista
• Five skills to certify in your first year, each with a raise (see pay, below). Our Lead Barista coaches you to each one
• A monthly cupping and calibration, and a roastery visit twice a year
• $500 a year after 90 days for outside learning you choose: an SCA course, a latte art class, a competition entry

Pay, stated plainly

• Base pay: $20.00 to $23.50 an hour, before tips. You start at $20.00. Base rises by a set amount for each of five skills you certify: espresso and milk; opening, closing and food safety; hospitality and regulars; our matcha and flavor program; slow bar and coffee knowledge. Most people certify two in their first 90 days.
• Tips, on top: pooled weekly and split by hours worked. We publish our average tips per hour every month.

Learning and benefits

• $500 a year learning allowance after 90 days, for SCA courses 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
• A path to Lead Barista as we grow

How to apply

Email [email protected] with your resume and a few sentences about a regular you remember from any job: who they were, and what you did that made them come back. We read every one.

Common Circuit is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background, identity and ability.