Job Description

We have an exciting opening for someone who wants to put their own voice and personality into one of Soho’s original natural wine spots.

This is an opportunity for someone who wants to bring a new voice to Ducksoup, who wants to take creative ownership of a lively Soho location with ideas, energy and curiosity. We’re looking for someone who wants to work with a talented Head chef to create a fresh outlook in food and wine.

Working closely with our Head Chef and a collaborative restaurant management team, you’ll lead the overall direction and development of Ducksoup: shaping its identity, building momentum, bringing new ideas into the restaurant and finding ways to translate them into a busy, exciting and commercially successful business. You would have real autonomy, assisted by your team and supported and encouraged by the founders. We want to give the right person room to put their own identity on the restaurant whilst respecting some of the core values in knowledge of the wine and food.

Our management structure is collaborative with standards, service, morale and hospitality as shared responsibilities across the team. Each manager also has their own creative areas of ownership.

The Restaurant Manger + Creative Lead directs on the bigger picture: momentum, direction and the development of harnessing a new voice and engagement for the restaurant.

You will:

Lead the next chapter of Ducksoup, developing a clear point of view about where the restaurant should go and keeping it moving forward.
Shape its identity and outward voice, working with the team on how Ducksoup presents itself both inside the restaurant and beyond its walls.
Develop ideas that bring people through the door - from producer dinners and collaborations to events, guest chefs, special menus and more
Turn ideas into action - recognise a good opportunity, understand what it could do for the business and see it through.
Work closely with the Head Chef, connecting food, wine, service and the personality of the restaurant together.
Be a visible presence on the floor and beyond leading brilliant services and helping create the warmth, energy and sense of hospitality that defines Ducksoup.
Understand the commercial performance of the restaurant, using sales, labour and other financial information to identify opportunities and make decisions.
Lead and develop the management team, giving staff ownership of their areas whilst creating a genuinely collaborative culture.
Keep Ducksoup connected to the world around it, remaining curious about restaurants, food, wine, producers, people and ideas both in London and further afield.

Benefits: Profit share scheme / Generous staff dining discounts / Cost price produce from suppliers / Hospitality tailored wellbeing support via Kellys Cause / Up to 8 free counselling sessions and online GP services via Hospitality Rewards / Discounted gym memberships, shopping vouchers and cinema tickets via Hospitality Rewards / Professional development training such as first aid, fire marshall, and mental health first aid training / In depth wine training with trusted suppliers

Job Requirements

You might be a GM, AGM, restaurant manager or another experienced hospitality professional who feels ready for more freedom and influence.

We think you'll have:

strong restaurant experience and the confidence to lead a busy service;
excellent wine knowledge and a genuine love of the low-intervention wines Ducksoup has championed;
a deep interest in food, wine, restaurants and hospitality;
strong commercial awareness without a corporate approach;
curiosity about what is happening beyond your own restaurant;
ideas, and a tenacity to execute them swiftly;
the confidence to lead but also to delegate and collaborate;
generosity towards other people's ideas and the ability to bring out the best in a team;
an instinct for what makes a restaurant feel relevant, exciting and alive;
the ability to balance creativity and innovation with the realities of running a commercially successful business.