Job Description

About Egg Harbor Cafe

Egg Harbor Cafe develops restaurant leaders who thrive in a fast-paced hospitality atmosphere. Our proven team-based culture, hospitality, and culinary systems will support your success in a culture where people care about fellow team members, our customers, and our communities.

We specialize in top-quality food, always carefully sourced and often all-natural or organic. We serve cage-free eggs that are 100% certified-humane. We pour premium fair-trade coffee sourced locally in downtown Chicago. We offer an extensive and excellent gluten-free menu.

Delicious food, great employees, and satisfied customers are the goals that influence everything we do. Our leadership teams are guided by the highest standards of quality and service. As a family-owned company for three generations, we are happy to be considered an extended family to our employees and loyal customers in the community.

From entry-level to management, we value our employees and know that they are at the heart of what makes Egg Harbor Cafe great. Many employees who embody our company values go through our outstanding training and grow to become the next leaders in our ever-evolving team.

Job Summary

General Managers at Egg Harbor Cafe are known internally as Store Leaders. This role is ultimately accountable for the full performance of the restaurant, including operational execution, financial results, team development, and guest experience. This role leads the store's leadership team (Hospitality Team Leader (HTL) and Culinary Team Leader (CTL), owns the Profit & Loss statement results, and ensures the restaurant reflects Egg Harbor Cafe's standards and values on every shift, every day. The Store Leader does not need to personally complete every task but is ultimately accountable for the result in every area of the restaurant.

Our Harbor Values

Egg Harbor Cafe has six core values that are the foundation of our company, and we are on a mission to have these both known by all and lived by everyone in the organization. Our Store Leaders are passionate about leading by example with these six values described below. The Harbor Values are utilized for hiring, promoting, and rewarding our people.

Habit 1 (Be Proactive) Own your circumstances; one must take responsibility for their life rather than blaming external circumstances for their choices.

All In: Full commitment and excitement for working at Egg Harbor Cafe, bringing a great work ethic and attitude to every shift.

Radiate Goodness: Natural Aura of kindness, positivity, and sense of warmth which can be felt with your presence.

Be About Others: A desire to serve your team and guests through our Hospitality program and teamwork.

Only Speak Truths: When you say you are going to do something, we can count on your word because of proven integrity.

Reflex of Excellence: A constant focus on doing your best work and a desire to learn, improve, and thrive every day as a normal standard.

Store Leader Role Responsibilities & Accountability

1. Intentional Daily Shift Leadership

• Hold ultimate accountability for the operational execution of the shift; ensure every guest is getting a 5-star experience.
• Actively manage the floor throughout the shift, staying involved and moving with the flow of the business to ensure every department is running smoothly.
• Complete the Daily Accountability Chart every day (the daily plan for where each teammate will be working) to ensure clarity of expectations for every team member throughout the shift.
• Uphold sanitation standards and cleanliness (bathroom checks, health inspections, monthly audits, weekly cleaning, temperature checks); identify misses and build an action plan to correct them.
• Observe, coach, and execute Secret Shopper standards; identify misses (reviews, shopper scores, weekly feedback reports) and build an action plan to correct them.
• Maintain high standards from open until the last guest leaves.

1. Compliance

• Follow the standards set out in our Egg Harbor Training Plan, including staying up to date on new courses and the menu's limited-time offerings (LTOs) for yourself and your team; communicate and coach on any changes.
• Daily duty to assess, coach, and certify teammates as appropriate.
• Ensure anyone working a given shift has the legal requirements necessary to do their job.

1. Company Communication

• Stay current on communication from corporate and updates from your District Manager; respond to emails and Teams messages the same business day or as soon as reasonably possible.
• Keep the team informed of company information through team meetings, FYIs, and Email/Teams/Sling messages.

1. Financials

• Meet or exceed your financial goals; track sales to hit budget, including building sales in-store and out of the store (catering, hot lunches, community events)
• Stay aware of each period's theoretical cost of goods sold and actively work with the culinary team to improve it.
• Put continued weekly effort into building schedules at budgeted labor; add labor to SharePoint on time weekly (Friday, 10 am) and note any labor above budget.
• Focus effort on the cost categories that are below budget to drive a turnaround.

1. Mission & Passion

• Know our values, live them daily, and coach the team through them.
• Help us with our mission of building regulars in the communities we serve by giving amazing service to every guest, recognizing and connecting with regulars.
• Help us with our passion of improving lives one encounter at a time.

1. Strong Culture

• Build a safe culture through consistent belonging cues, empathic listening, and leadership vulnerability that sets our leaders up for establishing purpose and motivation.
• Praise teammates consistently and specifically.
• Build a strong culture through upholding our high standards; conversations, coaching, and documentation completed in a timely manner.
• Ensure the recruiting/onboarding process is followed so the store has enough of the right people.
• Stay up to date on Performance Reviews and Employee Engagement Surveys.

1. Leadership, Management & Accountability (LMA)

• Lead, manage, and hold your Hospitality Team Leader (HTL) and Culinary Team Leader (CTL) accountable to deadlines and standards.
• Delegate appropriately; know when, what, and how to delegate, and know your leadership team's EHC career goals so you can support their growth to the next step.
• Make sure communication from corporate and other important information reaches whoever it applies to, through team meetings and Microsoft Teams.
• Understand that as Store Leader, you are accountable for everything in your restaurant; this does not mean you personally complete every task, but you own the result.
• Ensure certified teammates are held to the standards set out in the Egg Harbor Training Plan.

1. Kitchen Sanitation Excellence

• Complete daily and weekly cleaning, including properly cleaned floors.
• Complete daily temperature logs, with temps taken as close to 7 am and 11 am as possible
• Complete both the general and culinary Food Safety Audit every period, and implement preventative measures so misses are not repeated
• Follow through for any required Health Inspection directives.

Physical Requirements

• A well-developed organizational system to accomplish deadlines, weekly to-dos, and other assignments.
• Develop strong working relationships with store staff, Hamco (our management company), and vendors.
• Ability to lead meetings.
• Proficient in the execution of every job in the restaurant.
• Servant leader, willing to assist in any job within the restaurant.
• Ability to have critical conversations with teammates.
• Problem-solving skills to create solutions to problems as they arise.
• Schedule flexibility and availability each week to meet the needs of the store and business.
• Must be able to stand and walk for 7-8 hours at a time as well as lift 20 lbs.
• Work weeks will run roughly 40-50 hours; the majority of work weeks are 5 shifts. During hardships, management may determine it is necessary to work additional hours or days.

Background Requirements

• Proficient in Office 365 software, specifically Outlook, Teams, Excel, and SharePoint.
• Can read and professionally respond to emails.
• Can clearly communicate in English, verbally and in writing
• Understands the basic math required to calculate and manage food cost, labor, and other budgeting line items
• Proficient in Toast POS software required
• Proficient in Toast Tab software required
• Proficient in Sling (our scheduling platform)
• Proficient in R365 (our financial reporting platform)
• Proficient in BambooHR (our HR system)

Base Salary: $66,000–$86,000, based on experience and qualifications. Bonus Potential: Quarterly performance bonus tied to key operational metrics, with target payouts that scale with your salary band. Top-performing GMs can realistically earn total compensation of $100,000–$120,000+ when base and bonus are combined.

We’re building a talent pool of future Egg Harbor Cafe managers! While we may not be hiring for an immediate management position at the moment, we’re always interested in meeting talented leaders who want to grow with us. If you’re passionate about hospitality, developing people, and creating great guest experiences, we’d love for you to apply and start a conversation about future opportunities.

We have locations throughout the Chicagoland area, Georgia, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and Denver, with management opportunities.