Founding General Manager / Operating Partner

We're building a new fast-casual restaurant centered on shawarma, gyro, falafel, fresh sauces and a very focused menu built for quality, speed and value.

The ideal person has run a high-volume QSR or fast-casual restaurant and genuinely understands this kind of food. That could come from restaurant experience, culinary training, family cooking, or simply years around shawarma, gyro, falafel, döner, kebab or other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food.

You don't need to check every box. We care much more about finding the right combination of operator, food person and builder.

The ownership team is a group of local entrepreneurs whose backgrounds include owning and operating restaurants, restaurant technology and marketing, and commercial real estate.

We're trying to combine the discipline and systems of a good restaurant chain with the freedom to experiment that usually disappears once a company becomes one. The first restaurant is where we figure out what deserves to become the playbook.

Amazing food. Great value. Happy employees.

We think those reinforce each other. A focused menu and simple operation should let us serve better food at a better price, and a strong restaurant should pay people well, give them room to grow, and let them share in the value they help create.

We're designing around no tipping, employee ownership, performance upside, unusually open books on the numbers that matter, and a community fund tied to the location. Managers should understand the restaurant's economics. Employees should understand the metrics they can actually influence.

When the restaurant performs well, the people responsible should benefit.

An operating partner, not a hired manager.

You'd join early enough to help shape the restaurant itself. Depending on timing, that could include:

We have opinions, models and ideas. We don't assume we have all the answers, we want someone with enough restaurant experience to tell us when we're wrong.

Once open, you're responsible for the restaurant's day-to-day performance:

• Hiring, training, scheduling and developing the team
• Building strong shift leadership
• Labor and food-cost management
• Inventory, ordering, prep systems and waste control
• Food quality, portioning and recipe consistency
• Guest experience and service standards
• Food safety and cleanliness
• Cash controls and basic operating administration
• Weekly operating metrics and P&L performance
• Catering, group orders and local business development
• Improving systems as we learn what works

We want an owner mentality without a job that takes 60 hours a week to hold together. The founders will be heavily involved through development and opening; the long-term goal is a restaurant that runs well without them working stations.

You don't need to be a tech person.

You do need to be open to learning new systems and changing a process when we find a better way, digital SOPs, tablets, training tools, scheduling, dashboards, inventory tools, POS updates, automated reporting, checklists, or tools we build ourselves.

If a system creates more work than it eliminates, we should question it. And the operating system should evolve: when we learn a better way to prep, train, close or track waste, the SOP changes with it.

The strongest candidate will probably have several of these:

• Experience as a GM, AGM, Kitchen Manager, Culinary Manager, Operating Partner, Executive Chef or similar restaurant leader
• Experience in a high-volume QSR, fast-casual or counter-service environment
• Strong understanding of labor scheduling, food cost, inventory and restaurant P&Ls
• Experience hiring, coaching and developing hourly employees and shift leaders
• Familiarity with shawarma, gyro, falafel, kebab, döner or related Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food
• Strong instincts around flavor, consistency, portioning and food quality
• Experience turning recipes into systems other people can reproduce
• Comfort learning and maintaining digital operating systems and SOPs
• Catering, local store marketing or business development experience is a plus
• Comfort in an entrepreneurial environment where not everything is figured out yet

We're open to a successful GM, and to an exceptional AGM, kitchen manager, chef or restaurant leader who's been doing much of the job already and wants to help build and own something. We care more about the person than the title on their business card.

Real ownership, not a decorative title.

The incentive structure is meant to be simple and transparent: help grow the restaurant while holding our standards on food, labor, waste, guest experience and the team, and you should meaningfully share in that success. The exact ownership percentage depends on experience, scope, contribution and long-term commitment.

We're in development now, recipes, site selection, unit economics, suppliers, technology, catering and pre-launch testing. We're starting the search early because we'd rather find the right person while important decisions are still being made.

If the first restaurant works, we intend to build more, and whoever helps create the model should have the chance to grow with it.

Tell us what you've run, and what you'd want to build.

Send a little about your restaurant experience, the kinds of restaurants you've operated, and your connection to this food. No cover letter needed.