Duties for general, assistant, kitchen and bar managers, a job description you can copy, and the numbers each manager owns.
By Rob Bruni, founder of OpsEdge Hospitality, twenty years running restaurants, bars, clubs and resorts. Updated November 2026.
A restaurant manager job description should answer two questions: what does this person do every day, and which numbers are they accountable for. This guide lists the duties for the four management roles most restaurants have (general manager, assistant or front of house manager, kitchen manager and bar manager), gives you a job description you can copy and edit, and shows the daily, weekly and monthly rhythm that turns a list of duties into a job someone can be measured on.
Strip away the titles and every restaurant manager does five things: leads people, protects the guest experience, controls cost, keeps the building safe and legal, and handles money. What changes from role to role is which of those takes most of the week and which numbers land on that manager's desk.
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| People | Hiring, training, scheduling, coaching, write ups, reviews |
| Guests | Service standards, table touches, complaints and recovery, reviews |
| Cost | Ordering, receiving, inventory, waste, portioning, labor against sales |
| Compliance | Food safety, alcohol service, labor law, tip rules, licenses, safety |
| Money | Cash handling, deposits, comps and voids, invoices, daily sales report |
The general manager owns the result. Other managers own pieces of it, but the general manager answers for the whole profit and loss statement and for everything a guest or an inspector sees.
For the weekly numbers a general manager should check, see the restaurant manager weekly routine and the prime cost guide.
The assistant manager or front of house manager runs the floor. On most shifts this is the manager guests and servers actually see.
Related guides: steps of service, the pre shift meeting, running the host stand and the manager log.
The kitchen manager runs the back of house as a system. Where there is an executive chef, the chef owns the menu and the food, and the kitchen manager owns ordering, inventory, schedules and food safety. In many independent restaurants one person does both.
Related guides: food cost, restaurant inventory, recipe costing and health inspection readiness.
The bar manager owns the beverage program and its margin. Beverage usually carries the best margin in the building, so small leaks here cost more than they look.
Related guides and tools: pour cost, bar inventory, the pour cost calculator and the bar opening and closing checklist.
The Restaurant HR Kit has 15 job descriptions from dishwasher to general manager, a 56 page employee handbook, interview questions and hiring forms. Editable Word and Excel files, one time purchase.
See the Restaurant HR Kit Manager 90 day planCopy this, change what is in brackets and cut anything that does not apply. Keep it to one page. A job description that lists forty duties tells a candidate nothing about what matters.
Title: Restaurant Manager
Reports to: General Manager [or Owner]
Summary: Leads daily operations of [restaurant name], a [number] seat [concept] restaurant. Responsible for the guest experience, the team on shift and the cost of running it.
Main duties:
Accountable for: labor cost percentage, [food cost / pour cost] percentage, guest review scores, staff turnover and inspection results.
Requirements: [2+] years of restaurant management experience. Food protection manager certification and alcohol server certification, or able to obtain both within [30] days. Able to read a P&L and use [POS system]. Available nights, weekends and holidays. Able to stand for a full shift and lift [40] pounds.
Pay and schedule: [salary or hourly range], [bonus terms], [number] shifts a week, [benefits].
Rules on overtime, salaried status and tip pooling for managers vary by state. Check your state labor department or an employment attorney before you classify a manager as exempt or include one in a tip pool. The tip pooling and labor law guide covers the basics.
A duty without a number is a suggestion. Give each manager two or three results they answer for, and review them on a fixed day each week.
| Role | Owns | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| General manager | Sales against budget, prime cost, controllable profit, turnover | Weekly and monthly |
| Assistant or front of house manager | Front of house labor, average check, comps and voids, review scores | Weekly |
| Kitchen manager | Food cost, kitchen labor, waste, ticket times, inspection results | Weekly |
| Bar manager | Pour cost, inventory variance, bar labor, beverage sales per cover | Weekly |
Targets depend on your concept. The benchmarks page and the KPI targets guide give ranges by type of restaurant.
The opening and closing checklists guide and the SOP guide show how to write these routines down so they survive a change of manager.
Five free calculators turn these guides into results in a few minutes: prime cost, food cost, labor cost, break-even and pour cost. Each one shows the gap to the benchmark for your concept in dollars a year. No signup.
Open the free calculators See the benchmarksA restaurant manager runs the shift and the business behind it: hiring and scheduling staff, leading service, handling guest problems, controlling food, beverage and labor cost, placing orders, counting inventory, handling cash and keeping the building safe and clean. The split between floor time and office time depends on the size of the restaurant.
A general manager owns the profit and loss statement. That means sales, prime cost, staffing, training, guest experience, compliance and the condition of the building. Assistant, kitchen and bar managers report to the general manager, who is accountable for every result even when the task is delegated.
A kitchen manager runs the back of house: ordering and receiving, inventory, prep lists, recipe and portion standards, food safety logs, scheduling cooks and dishwashers, equipment upkeep and food cost. In a restaurant with an executive chef, the chef owns the menu and the kitchen manager owns the systems.
A bar manager owns the beverage program: ordering and inventory for liquor, beer and wine, pour cost, drink recipes and pricing, hiring and training bartenders, scheduling, cash handling at the bar and responsible alcohol service.
A one line summary of the role, who it reports to, the five to eight duties that matter most, the numbers the manager is accountable for, required experience and certifications, the schedule (nights, weekends, holidays), physical requirements and the pay range. Keep it to one page.
Leading a team under pressure, clear communication, basic financial literacy (reading a P&L and calculating food, labor and pour cost), scheduling, conflict resolution with guests and staff, and working knowledge of food safety and alcohol service rules.
