Kitchen General Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

General Manager — With Potential Path to Part Ownership

Loupiotte Kitchen is a cozy French café in the heart of Los Feliz. Open seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., we are a neighborhood restaurant built on warmth, consistency, and genuine care—for our food, our guests, our team, and our community.

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on General Manager who can take full responsibility for the restaurant as a business and wants to make Loupiotte a long-term professional home.

This is not a corporate management position or a short-term stepping-stone. It is a high-trust, high-involvement leadership role in a small independent restaurant where your judgment, initiative, and presence will matter every day. We are looking for someone who has successfully run a small restaurant before, thinks like an owner, and wants to build something enduring.

For the right long-term partner, after 12 months of strong performance and mutual fit, we would be open to discussing an opportunity to earn a minority ownership stake in Loupiotte. This is not automatic and would be subject to separately agreed terms and vesting.

The Role

The General Manager will assume day-to-day responsibility for the entire restaurant: its people, hospitality, food quality, operations, financial performance, and physical condition.

This is a full-time, five-day-per-week working leadership role. The GM must be comfortable moving fluidly between managing the business, leading the kitchen, and directly serving guests. Throughout the week, the GM will step into service whenever needed—including serving tables alongside the FOH team during leaner staffing periods—while continuing to oversee the overall flow and quality of the restaurant.

This is a role for someone who believes that leadership means being present, setting the standard, and helping wherever necessary.

On any given day, this may include:

• Serving guests directly, including taking orders, running food, checking on tables, and resolving issues

• Leading the kitchen when needed, including cooking, prep, and maintaining quality and pace

• Managing the floor, supporting the team, and setting the tone for service

• Ensuring clear communication and coordination between the kitchen and dining room

• Taking ownership of problems and following them through to resolution

• Serving as the restaurant’s central point of leadership, particularly during peak service

• Identifying opportunities to strengthen the business, improve systems, and grow revenue

We operate with a lean, thoughtful team, so this role requires someone who is highly capable, resourceful, and genuinely comfortable being directly involved in every aspect of the restaurant.

Responsibilities

• Take full responsibility for the restaurant’s daily operations and overall performance

• Maintain exceptional standards of hospitality, food quality, cleanliness, and service

• Work five days per week and serve tables or otherwise support the FOH team whenever needed

• Hire, train, schedule, coach, and retain a strong FOH and BOH team

• Create a warm, respectful culture built on care, accountability, and clear expectations

• Manage the restaurant’s P&L, sales, labor, food costs, purchasing, inventory, waste, and other controllable expenses

• Oversee vendors, repairs, maintenance, health compliance, and operational systems

• Work closely with the kitchen to maintain consistency, quality, preparation, and pace

• Cook or assist in the kitchen when needed

• Build lasting relationships with guests and the surrounding Los Feliz community

• Communicate clearly with ownership about results, challenges, and opportunities

• Approach every part of the restaurant with an owner’s sense of responsibility

Who This Role Is For

• Someone with at least three years of restaurant leadership experience

• Someone who has previously held meaningful responsibility for running a small independent restaurant

• A confident server who genuinely enjoys taking care of guests

• A strong cook who is comfortable working in the kitchen

• An experienced operator who understands both hospitality and the numbers behind the business

• A warm, emotionally intelligent leader who can inspire a team while holding people accountable

• Someone organized, resourceful, calm under pressure, and exceptionally dependable

• Someone seeking a lasting role and the opportunity to help shape Loupiotte’s future

Experience with French cuisine and proficiency in French or Spanish are strong advantages but are not required.