General Manager, The Garden Cafe at The Garden Museum

To apply email: [email protected]

Contract Type: Full Time, Permanent Contract (c 45 hrs weekly shift patterns, some pre-planned evening and weekend working)

Salary: c£55,000 Total Package per year (made up of £45k basic salary plus £10K minimum Tronc) plus a Performance-Related Bonus, plus Benefits

Responsible For: The effective delivery of smooth and cost efficient Café operations, with lead responsibility for the Front of House team; Working in synergy with our Head Chef, who leads the Kitchen Team; thus jointly ensuring our                  inspiring “dining destination” reputation

Manager of:                           The Café Front of House Team

Reports to:                             The Director of Commercial and Operations

Location:                                The Garden Museum, Lambeth, London, SE1 7LB

About us: The Garden Café is open for dining every lunchtime and one evening a week (Tuesday); in the spring and summer it also opens on Friday evenings. We also cater for private dinners, meetings and events. Set within a garden designed by Dan Pearson, it is unique in London in being part of the Garden Museum, but also a popular dining destination in its own right.

The menu at the Garden Café changes daily based on the seasons and what our fantastic suppliers have to offer. The best quality ingredients are treated with care and attention by the kitchen team with flavour and freshness at the heart of what ends up on the plate. It reflects the ethos of the Museum, whose design is contemporary, authentic, and original with an emphasis upon the honesty of materials.

Opened in June 2017, the Garden Café was reviewed by Jay Rayner of The Observer as ‘one of the loveliest new spaces to open in the capital in a long while and boasting food to match’. Other mentions include:

“A leafy enclave to treasure in Lambeth… brilliant” – Evening Standard

“I’ve found a hidden oasis in the centre of London” – The Times

“A green-fingered treat… and truly seasonal food” – The Week

“A bit of everyday magic”– Londonist

The new General Manager will work with our fantastic Head Chef, Myles Donaldson and the rest of the team at the Museum to enthusiastically, grow and celebrate the quality of the Museum’s dining offer.

Our Café turnover is over £1m per year, therefore applicants for this role must have strong General Manager experience, gained within a successful and similar sized restaurant. Additionally this year we are growing the share of our Café Catering offer for Private Venue Hire events, that take place at the Museum.

https://www.instagram.com/gardenmuseumcafe/

Role Responsibilities:

Team:

• Manage the Café Front of House team – including other Managers and                   Supervisors.
• Provide regular reports of activities, staffing, targets and operations to the Director of Commercial and Operations.
• Collect payroll information (including kitchen team) and supply to the relevant departments by deadline dates.
• Create and manage a weekly Front of House Rota in line with agreed staffing budgets.
• Ensure your Direct Reports have Job descriptions and agree their responsibilities, targets and how these feed into the wider FoH, Kitchen teams and role of Café General Manager.
• Demonstrate a firm but fair approach in the management of the FoH team, fostering a positive and enthusiastic team culture that naturally maintains
• Hire, train, conduct appraisals and provide support to the Café team: Hold regular team & 1:1 meetings with the café Front of House team to discuss their roles, targets and ideas
• Provide induction for new recruits, notifying them of Garden Museum and probation procedures.
• Ensure the Café team are provided with training for all areas of their roles, including relevant training for Food hygiene, First Aid, Allergy Awareness and Coshh
• Ensure synergy is maintained with the kitchen and the events departments
• Ensure staff are well-presented, wearing agreed uniform and protective equipment, hair tied back etc.

Personal:

• Prioritise time and resources to ensure essential targets are met.
• Manage division of your personal working time between projects, service and office admin, as required.
• Communicate clearly and positively with the café team, the kitchen and all other Garden Museum staff and stakeholders.
• Demonstrate trust and discretion
• Demonstrate a can-do attitude in the development of new ideas for success (using the Director of Commercial and Operations for input or support, as appropriate)
• Approaches challenges as opportunities

Café Service, Offer and Operations:

• Creating, improving & directing the café service model
• Agree Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) with the Director of Commercial and Operations and ensure they are met.
• Establishing and maintaining a high-quality and consistent service style that is conscientious, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, informal and unfussy.
• Overseeing the daily service set up, order of service, sections of responsibility – and managing rota in accordance with seasonal variations in business
• Fostering an award-winning culture for the café.
• Be a Key holder for the Garden Museum; Ensure the safe opening and closing and security of the café (and where necessary the whole building.)
• Ensure the highest levels of cleanliness, hygiene and health and safety are maintained, including working with the Head Chef and Operations and Facilities Manager on Environmental Health Standards and Pest Control
• Working to increase visitor numbers, maximise spend per head and customer satisfaction
• Work with the Head Chef and Kitchen team to provide an engaging, quality and consistent food offer.
• Owning responsibility for tidiness and organisation of cafe space – working with facilities and operations to improve both practical and aesthetic aspects of the café
• Ensure all relevant licences are in place (Alcohol, events, PRS etc)
• With the Head Chef ensure that the operations of the café, its clients, deliveries and so on are conducted in a manner the maintains the Museum’s good relationship with our neighbours and in particular Lambeth Palace.
• Innovate and come up with new ideas for the Café
• Curating the drinks offer, working closely with suppliers, and managing according to agreed Gross Profit targets.
• Keeping abreast of industry trends and the offers of competitors and comparable operations

Promotional:

• Marketing and promoting the Garden Museum Café, working with the Museum Marketing team.
• Provide ideas and content for physical and social media marketing.
• Market the Garden Museum Café through word of mouth with visitors, bills, menus, point of sale and on table options.
• Take ownership for the promotion, improvement and response to reviews (tripadvisor/google/newpapers/blogs etc.)
• Promoting Café news and social media and sign up to these
• Promoting sales of Café Gift Vouchers
• Oversee use and promotion of online table booking platform.

Financial:

• With the Museum Senior management team and Head Chef in create the yearly budget for the Garden Museum Café
• Set targets for the café income, expenditure, margins and reforecasting and adjusting according to changing levels of business. Owning and delivering the targets and relaying them to the team.
• Making and delivering a monthly staffing forecast in partnership with the Head Chef
• Look for ways to make savings and the café operation more efficient
• Working with our accountants to create the monthly accounts and providing relevant commentary to the figures.
• Ensure all aspects of financial control and reporting is achieved, including daily till and card processing reconciliations and Tronc monies. Investigate any discrepancies and report.

General:

• Represent the Garden Museum in a positive and professional manner.
• Working closely with all Museum departments, particularly with the FoH team and the Public programming team (over Tuesday evenings, Private Views and Museum Dinners etc.)
• Supporting the work of other departments of the Museum when appropriate.
• Attend Garden Museum meetings such as the weekly diary meeting and sustainability forum etc. as required.
• Engage with general Museum Donation and Fundraising/promotional schemes when appropriate.
• Other general duties as and when they arise in relation to the role of Café General  Manager.

The Ideal Candidate will possess the following:

Essential:

• Strong hands-on General Manager experience, gained within a successful and similar sized restaurant (turnover over £1m p.a)
• Demonstrable evidence of the practical experience to successfully deliver the above listed role responsibilities, namely: Team, Financial, Personal, Promotional and Café Service, Offer, Operations and General requirements
• Strong people management, communication & Interpersonal skills – able to build & maintain effective working relationships
• Confidence and accuracy in financial control and reporting
• Highly organized, with an n eye for detail
• Able to support growth of our Café catering for Venue Hire (private events) at the Museum

Desirable: 

• Knowledge and Passion for Wines, to inspire the Café clientele and FoH team
• An understanding of working in a cultural venue, and a creative response to the Museum’s cultural programme

Benefits 

• 27 days paid annual leave per annum plus the an entitlement to statutory Bank Holidays (or time in lieu when worked) This is inclusive of the mandatory closure period between Christmas and New Year.
• Pensions Auto Enrolment and Staff Discounts in the Café, Museum Shop & Museum.

Application 

• Please email a CV and covering letter outlining your skills and experience in relation to the job description to: [email protected]
• Mark the subject box: CAFÉ GENERAL MANAGER
• Closing date for applications: Midnight on Monday 4th August 2025

We regret that we are unable to respond to all applicants, you will only hear from us if we wish to invite you to interview

Equal Opportunities

The Garden Museum aims to be an inclusive organisation where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, and where there is equal opportunity for all. The Garden Museum respects and values diverse characteristics. We are committed to positively engaging and celebrating the differences of our diverse staff and users, to enable us to achieve our aims within the organisation and the external community.

To apply email: [email protected]