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Food & Beverage Manager for The Old Deanery Restaurant With Rooms, Ripon
About The Old Deanery:
The Old Deanery in Ripon is one of Yorkshires newest and most exciting dining experiences, having re-branded as a restaurant with rooms with award winning chef, Adam Jackson since November 2023, winning 3 AA Rosettes in September 2024, and becoming Michelin Recommended in January 2025.
We are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We open from lunchtime on Wednesdays for drinks and overnight stays. Lunch, afternoon tea, and our signature evening tasting menu is served Thursday Saturday, and we serve a fantastic (busy) Sunday lunch on Sundays.
There are 11 bedrooms, and we have a unique breakfast concept as the lasting impression after our hotel guests depart.
The Old Deanery is an independently owned family business with a senior management team made up of the two owners, and a group managing director. We also have a sister site in York. The senior management will oversee the group or head office functions such as (but not limited to) accounts, payroll, marketing, health and safety.
The day-to-day operation will be looked after in-house at The Old Deanery by a management duo made up of the existing House Manger, and the new Food & Beverage Manager.
On-site, there is a head chef, a kitchen brigade, a house manager, plus a solid front of house / restaurant team, plus a housekeeper and night porter.
About the role:
We are seeking an experienced food and beverage professional to join our team with the title of Food & Beverage Manager. Specific responsibilities will include:
1. Managing the restaurant (open Thursday Sunday): We have an excellent Duty Manger who runs most evening restaurant services; however, it is the expectation that the Food & Beverage Manager will be able to manage service with confidence if/when required. For this, proven excellent food and wine knowledge and experience is required.
2. Managing events: The Old Deanery also hosts weddings and events, and the expectation would be that the Food & Beverage Manager would use the provided function sheet to plan ahead for these, to ensure that we are prepared with room set-up, cutlery, glassware, and staffing, to ensure that the event goes ahead smoothly. Experience of front of house events management would be preferred.
3. Managing the businessoutsideof service: This includes working alongside with the House Manager to ensure that the property is always clean, tidy, and well presented, front and back of house; ensuring that orders are up to date and stored correctly; and that the team are well looked after and managed. In addition to this, you should be able to look at the wider business, and identify additional opportunities for growth, either by enhancing the product, finding efficiencies, and/or uplifting service and crucially being able to effectively propose these changes in a professional manner and then follow through with these opportunities yourself once approved.
Experience of a 3-4 AA Rosette level restaurant is essential, and we want this level of quality and service to emanate throughout the whole business.
The hours will be 40-45 hours a week depending on the rota, with the most likely shift pattern being 12 noon until finish (around 11pm) on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus a 10am finish (around 6pm) on Sunday. You would work with the House Manager to arrange the weekly rota around the needs of the business.
The goal:
Together the existing House Manager and new Food & Beverage will run the day-to-day operation at The Old Deanery, with each person taking a lead in their respective areas, but ultimately - being a small team - everybody must have a good knowledge of every department. This includes (but is not limited to), answering phones, checking emails, and checking-in/out hotel guests.
As a small business, this will be a very hands-on role that in a large part includes being the face of The Old Deanery on a day-to-day basis. Behind the scenes, we are looking for a confident leader to drive the business forwards: Having only been a restaurant with rooms for less than two years, we are still a young business, and we are growing every day.
