The Role The Lloyd opens in Shifnal this summer. It will be an evening restaurant in the truest sense intimate, considered, and built to last. Laura Kimber leads the kitchen. The wine programme is shaped by one of the Midlands most respected sommeliers. The food and the list are ready. What we need now is the person who makes the room feel the way the cooking tastes.
We are looking for a Restaurant Manager who has worked at the level where every detail is intentional where a table is turned not because the clock says so, but because the guest is ready. Someone who builds the kind of service culture that guests travel for and staff stay for.
This is a founding role. You will set the standard, hire your team, and own the guest experience from the moment a reservation is made to the moment someone steps back into the night having had the best evening they have had in years.
What the Role Looks Like You will be the most senior front-of-house presence at every service, working in close partnership with the Chef Director and wine lead sharing the belief that great hospitality is a single, unified act, not separate departments operating in parallel.
Leading and developing the front-of-house team across all services
Setting and sustaining service standards that reflect the quality of the kitchen and the ambition of the wine programme
Owning the guest relationship from pre-booking communication to table management to follow-up
Managing the reservations platform (SevenRooms) and driving intelligent yield across a WednesdaySunday schedule
Overseeing floor operations, dispense, and beverage service in collaboration with the wine lead
Playing a central role in building the team identifying, recruiting, and retaining exceptional FOH talent
Contributing to pre-opening setup: service design, table plan, opening sequences, staff training programme
You will not be office-based. You will be on the floor, present at service, visible to guests and team alike.
What We Are Looking For There is no fixed checklist for this. We are looking for the quality of person as much as the weight of CV. That said, the candidates most likely to thrive here will have led front-of-house operations at a comparable level a destination restaurant, a two-rosette dining room, a serious independent.
Reads a room the way a chef reads a pass with precision and without hesitation
Strong wine knowledge and genuine curiosity; WSET Level 2 minimum, Level 3 preferred
Communicates warmth and authority in equal measure
Understands that the best service is felt, not performed
Has the commercial clarity to think about covers, pacing, and margin without it ever showing at the table
Wants to build something that lasts, rather than be comfortable in something that already exists
A Note on What This Is The Lloyd is not a chain. It is not a concept. It is a restaurant built by people who believe that the best evenings are unhurried, that the cooking and the service should be impossible to separate, and that a small room done with complete conviction will outlast a large one done with half of it.
If that is the environment you want to work in, we would very much like to hear from you.
The Benefits Equal shared tips
Company pension
28 days holiday inc. bank holidays
Profit share scheme
Supplier visits
Team socials
Staff food included
Friends & family discount
Professional development & training
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