Restaurant Operations Startup Internship

About the company

The Tablewright is an early-stage restaurant operations company working with independent full-service restaurants in New York City. We help restaurant owners monitor and enforce service consistency standards during every shift and give them a clearer view into their day-to-day shift operations.

Our vision is to bring elite hospitality systems and management expertise to all independent restaurants, that usually cannot afford multiple layers of managers or restaurant consultants. The company is founder-run and early, and we are starting with a limited set of restaurant clients to prove our model.

Role

You will work directly with the founder in shaping strategy, doing on-ground research, and field-based operations at client restaurants.

Our immediate project is getting to the first restaurants that will work with us and working out what we should be building for them. That means being inside a lot of restaurants and talking to a lot of owners and managers. It means research: which independent rooms across Brooklyn and Manhattan are worth approaching, who runs them, and how you get in front of that person. It also means assessing operations at restaurants and understanding current gaps.

When a restaurant does sign, you would be on site for the work. That would include preparing observation reports, doing pre-shift checks and data analysis.

This is a startup role that happens to live in restaurants. It is not a culinary role, not a front-desk role, and not an internship where somebody hands you a defined task each week. You get a chance to interact with multiple restaurant models at the same time and get a close view of building a service company with an experienced operator.

Responsibilities

Restaurants, in person. Going into independent restaurants across the city, watching how the room runs, and writing down what you see. Some of it alongside the founder, some of it on your own.

Research and target lists. Working out which independent rooms are worth approaching, who owns or runs them, and the realistic way in. This is the work that decides where the company goes next.

Operations delivery. On site for the work, including preparing observation reports, doing pre-shift checks and data analysis.

Content creation. Starting a content workstream documenting The Tablewright's restaurant visits and research.

Qualifications

Required

• Current student in a culinary, hospitality management, restaurant management, foodservice management, or related program
• Some prior restaurant or foodservice work experience
• Clear written English. An important part of this role is writing observation and analysis reports
• Genuine familiarity with New York City neighborhoods
• Willing to walk into a restaurant you have no introduction to and start a conversation
• Available on weekday evenings

Preferred

• Interest in restaurant management, general management, or opening your own place one day
• Interest in tech and data

Not required

• Management experience
• Office or startup experience

What you get out of it

You see a company get built from nothing: finding the first customers, working out what to sell them, and selling it. Bonus, you will potentially visit and learn a lot about New York City restaurants.

You also meet a lot of owners and general managers of independent New York restaurants, in working conversations rather than as a guest.

The founder has been an ex-operations and P&L leader and has hired and trained several hundred people doing it. You will be supervised and get career guidance on building your own business.