Cafe & DNA Espresso Manager

The café manager at Hawthorne Garage leads the DNA espresso bar and gourmet deli café operations. This role is responsible for ensuring every customer receives fast, consistent, and high-quality food and coffee service, while the café delivers strong sales, profitability, and compliance with food safety.

This is a hands-on leadership role in a fast-paced environment. You are on the floor, setting the pace during peak times, leading by example in service, speed, and quality. You are responsible for ensuring the café team runs smoothly, with baristas, deli staff, and counter staff all working together to create an excellent customer experience.

Your role spans customer service, financial performance, rostering, stock management, and compliance. You will ensure coffee standards are consistent, deli displays are always full and appealing, staff are trained and motivated, and customers leave satisfied.

Reporting to the store manager, you own the café department's performance. Your success is measured by customer experience, financial results, team development, and compliance with safety and food standards.

• Manage the full café service journey: every customer greeted promptly, served quickly, and leaving satisfied.
• Enforce coffee-making standards: correct grind, extraction, milk texture, and presentation every time.
• Monitor speed of service during peak periods, ensuring customers are served efficiently without compromising quality.
• Oversee upselling and suggestive selling by the café team to increase average spend.
• Monitor customer feedback specific to the café and act promptly on complaints or opportunities.
• Team leadership & culture
• Lead daily café huddles to set expectations, priorities, and standards.
• Ensure all new hires complete induction, barista training, and food safety requirements within two weeks.
• Create and publish weekly café rosters that align to demand and budget.
• Coach and mentor staff daily on coffee quality, deli service, upselling, and customer care.
• Manage team accountability: correct poor performance early and reinforce high standards.
• Recruit and retain café staff who bring skill, energy, and cultural fit.
• Operations & stock management
• Manage ordering of coffee, milk, deli items, and consumables to meet demand without over-ordering.
• Ensure monthly café/espresso bar stocktakes are completed and purchase orders raised accurately.
• Track waste daily, investigate causes, and put corrective actions in place.
• Oversee preparation and display of deli/café products to ensure freshness and appeal.
• Deliver promotions, loyalty programs, and seasonal café offers effectively.
• Review weekly café sales, GP, wages, and wastage reports, acting quickly on any variance.
• Adjust pricing when supplier costs increase to maintain margin.
• Manage rostering to ensure labour aligns to forecast and budget.
• Oversee accurate daily cash handling and reconciliation.
• Compliance, safety & food standards
• Maintain strict food safety and compliance standards within the café and deli.
• Oversee daily cleaning schedules, temperature checks, and food safety logs.
• Respond to and document incidents, ensuring corrective actions are taken.

• Minimum 3 years' café, deli, or hospitality management experience.
• Proven ability to deliver café-level profit, wage, and waste targets.
• Strong barista skills and product knowledge.
• Leadership experience managing teams of 10+.
• Strong rostering, stock control, and ordering capability.
• Excellent customer service and training skills.
• Confident with café-level p&l, budgets, and reporting.
• Thrives in a fast-paced café environment with high attention to detail.

The Hawthorne Garage and DNA Espresso Bar is a fast-paced environment nestled in Brisbane's Eastern Suburbs. We are your local grocer, offering a one-stop shopping solution for all things gourmet. Our unique shopping experience combines fresh food with excellent service in a distinctive setting. The iconic old 'Garage' is perfect for your daily shop, featuring a wide range of fresh produce, delicatessen items, an espresso bar, groceries, and organic options. Please forward your resume to dan@hawthornegarage.com.au

• How many years of people management experience do you have?
• Which of the following statements best describes your right to work in Australia?
• Do you have customer service experience?
• Do you have experience preparing work rosters?
• How many years' experience do you have with forecasting for businesses?
• Which of the following types of coffee do you have experience preparing?