Restaurant Manager Cover Letter Example

Food cost at Lone Oak Kitchen fell from 33% to 29% under my management, and staff turnover from 90% to 58% in three years, in a 180-seat restaurant doing $3.6 million a year. I am applying to run one of your dining rooms as a Restaurant Manager at Barton Springs Hospitality.

I own the weekly profit and loss for a restaurant with 45 staff, from daily service to the numbers. Labor holds near 29% of sales because I rebuilt the schedule around forecast covers for each shift, which brought it down from 32%. Food cost came down through weekly inventory counts and portion checks on the line, so a problem shows up within days rather than at month end. We have scored 98 or above on each health inspection in the last three years, and I handle serious guest complaints in person, with a follow-up note afterward.

Promoting from within is why Barton Springs Hospitality is the group I want to join, because I am a product of it myself. I started as a server at Limestone Bend Taphouse, became shift supervisor there, then assistant manager at Congress Bay Grill and now manager at Lone Oak Kitchen: server to manager in eight years across three restaurants. To hire, train and keep a strong team, I built a three-step path from server to shift lead with set training checks, and at Congress Bay I trained 20 new servers and bartenders on service standards and the point-of-sale system. With a fifth restaurant opening, your next managers have to come from somewhere, and I would like to help grow them.

Bringing the outline of that shift lead path to an interview, with names removed, is the simplest way to show how it works. Ahead of that meeting, I am curious how your managers prepare for the weekly P&L review with their partner.