Brenen’s Cafe | The Ohio State University Campus
Brenen’s Cafe is looking for a dependable, hands-on Assistant Manager to help lead our weekday café operation on The Ohio State University campus.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced restaurant or café professional who prefers an early-morning, Monday-through-Friday schedule. A major part of this role is helping open the café, baking and preparing products, organizing the team, and making sure we are fully prepared for a successful breakfast and lunch service.
We are looking for a strong second-in-command who can support the General Manager, take ownership of daily responsibilities, and lead the team without needing constant direction.
Schedule
- Full-time position
- Monday through Friday
- No regular weekend shifts
- Early-morning availability is required
- Shifts begin before the café opens to allow time for baking, food preparation, and setup
- Located on The Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio
Exact starting times may vary depending on the needs of the café and the university schedule.
Primary Responsibilities
The Assistant Manager will work alongside the General Manager to oversee daily café operations, including:
- Opening the café in the early morning
- Baking breads, pastries, and other café products
- Completing morning food preparation and product setup
- Preparing, slicing, portioning, and organizing ingredients
- Ensuring the café is fully stocked and ready before service
- Leading and positioning employees for successful shifts
- Managing breakfast and lunch execution
- Maintaining food quality, presentation, and portion standards
- Providing friendly and professional customer service
- Supervising, training, coaching, and motivating team members
- Maintaining a clean, organized, and food-safe workplace
- Ordering products from approved vendors
- Monitoring inventory, product levels, and food waste
- Assisting with employee scheduling
- Handling customer concerns professionally
- Supporting opening, cleaning, prep, and other daily café duties
- Stepping into any position necessary to help the team succeed
This is a hands-on leadership position. The Assistant Manager must be willing and able to learn and perform every job in the café.
Ideal Candidate
Our ideal candidate:
- Has restaurant, café, bakery, deli, or food-service management experience
- Has experience in a Panera-style, fast-casual, bakery-café, or high-volume lunch environment
- Enjoys working early mornings
- Has baking, culinary, food-preparation, or kitchen experience
- Is culinary-minded or able to learn recipes and preparation standards quickly
- Is excellent with customers
- Can manage preparation, baking, product setup, lunch execution, and employee positioning
- Is professional, dependable, organized, and detail-oriented
- Can recognize what needs to be done and take action without constant direction
- Communicates clearly with employees, customers, and management
- Is comfortable giving direction and holding employees accountable
- Leads by example and is willing to work alongside the team
Minimum Qualifications
Applicants must have:
- At least two years of supervisory or management experience
- Restaurant, café, bakery, kitchen, or food-service experience
- Strong early-morning and weekday availability
- A high school diploma or equivalent; college education is preferred
- Knowledge of food-safety regulations and health department standards
- Basic knowledge of inventory, ordering, food costs, and profit-and-loss statements
- Basic math and accounting skills
- Strong leadership, communication, customer-service, and conflict-resolution skills
- Reliable transportation and consistent attendance
- A professional appearance and attitude
- The ability to work full-time, Monday through Friday
Physical Requirements
The Assistant Manager must be able to:
- Stand and work on their feet for shifts of approximately eight hours
- Regularly lift and carry 35–50 pounds
- Bend, stretch, push, pull, and reach
- Perform repetitive food-preparation and baking tasks
- Continuously use both hands and wrists
- Work safely and efficiently in a fast-paced café environment
Why Join Brenen’s Cafe?
Brenen’s Cafe has been part of the Ohio State community for decades. We take pride in serving high-quality food made with quality ingredients, offering unique menu combinations, and providing exceptional customer service.
This position offers the consistency of a weekday schedule while still providing the energy and opportunity of a busy campus café. For the right person, the Assistant Manager position could be the beginning of a rewarding long-term career with us.
If you are an experienced café or restaurant leader who enjoys early mornings, baking, preparing excellent food, serving customers, and helping a team succeed, we would love to hear from you.
Apply today to join the Brenen’s Cafe team on The Ohio State University campus.
Many people ask the question "What Makes Brenz different?" To be honest, the answer is quite simple. Passion. A passion for quality, creativity, customer service, and catering. Our goal is to provide a unique product and experience to make your family meal or office event an overwhelming success.
Ingredients:
When you order a Brenz pizza, we want to give you a memorable experience. That’s why we make sure the quality of all our individual ingredients contribute to an unforgettable finished product. We always use fresh produce, artisan aged cheeses and top-quality sausage and pepperoni from a family-owned Columbus, Ohio business. Sourcing selectively from all over the country helps us achieve one thing - a pizza you’ll never forget.
Experience:
We know how hard it is to enjoy your event when your mind is spinning with the details of catering organization. That’s why our team of catering experts is here to lend their expertise. Let us seamlessly guide you through the process of selecting the perfect menu options, accommodating any preferences or special requests, and organizing the perfect event. With timely delivery and careful setup, we’re here to handle all the details so you can focus on enjoying the occasion and making great memories with your guests.
Examples:
For over a decade, Brenz has catered multiple orders every day. Whether you’re feeding 10 people or 1000, we’ve developed blueprints to make your event a seamless, worry-free success. Let us do the heavy lifting! Our goal is to make your life easier when it comes to coordinating all of the logistics of your order. Our catering experts are here to guide you through the process and make everything as simple as possible for you.