Hiring a taproom manager who can run the floor

The job is three jobs at once

A taproom manager runs people, beer and money in the same shift. On the people side, they set rosters, brief the team before service, handle the difficult table and refuse service when someone has had enough. On the beer side, they keep draught at the right temperature and pressure, keep lines clean and know every beer well enough to sell it. On the money side, they close the till, reconcile cash and card, watch wastage and keep the stock sheet honest.

Most candidates are strong in one of these and weak in another. Restaurant managers usually know people and money but not draught. Bartenders who have grown into the role know beer but may never have built a roster. Decide which gap you can train and which you cannot.

What to look for on paper

Look for someone who has run a busy floor of 80 covers or more, closed a till on their own and managed at least four or five staff. Beer knowledge helps, but it is the easiest thing on this list to teach. We would rather hire a sharp restaurant manager and train them on draught than hire a beer enthusiast who has never had to tell a regular his tab is overdue.

Check that they understand responsible service. Ask what the legal drinking age is in your state, since it differs between states. Then ask how they have handled an underage or drunk guest before. The answer tells you more than any reference.

Interview questions that reveal the floor

Skip "where do you see yourself in five years". Ask questions with numbers in the answer:

• Your till is ₹3,000 short at close. What do you do, in order?
• Two staff call in sick on a Saturday with 120 covers booked. Walk me through the next hour.
• A guest says the beer tastes off. What do you check first?
• How would you cut glass breakage in half over three months?

Good managers answer with steps. Weak ones answer with attitude. For the off beer question, the answer we want covers the line, the glass and the beer itself, in roughly that order.

Run a paid trial shift

An interview shows how someone talks. A trial shift shows how they work. Pay the candidate for a full Friday or Saturday evening shift and give them a real task: run one section, or shadow your current lead and take over for the last two hours.

Watch the small things. Do they wipe the tap after pouring? Do they notice the empty water jug on table six? Do they check a pint against the light? Ask the bar team what they thought afterwards. Staff are quick judges of whether a new manager will make their night easier or harder.

Give them draught standards they will own

Write the beer standards into the role from day one, so the new manager knows what good looks like:

• Draught served at around 2 to 4 °C.
• Lines cleaned every 14 days, with the date logged.
• Glasses beer clean: no bubbles clinging to the sides, lacing that rings the glass as the beer drops.
• Kegs changed by trained staff only, with the coupler sanitised.

The floor detail we would test in the trial shift: hand them a pint with bubbles stuck to the glass and see if they spot it. Those bubbles mean a film of grease or detergent. A manager who catches it will catch a lot of other things too. Our guide to training bar staff to sell craft beer covers the selling side.

Give them authority to match the job

A manager who must ask the founder before comping a dessert or sending a drunk guest home is not a manager. Decide in writing what they can do on their own. Typical limits: comp up to a set rupee value per table, approve a staff swap, refuse service, call the police and order glassware or cleaning supplies up to a monthly budget. Anything above those limits goes to the founder.

Back their calls in front of the team, even when you would have chosen differently. Talk about it privately afterwards. A manager overruled on the floor once is a manager the bar team stops listening to. Pay matters here too. A taproom manager earning barely more than the senior bartender has little reason to carry the extra weight of rosters, cash and complaints.

The numbers they should report every week

Agree a short weekly report before they start. Five numbers is enough: sales, average spend per guest, beer sold in litres, beer loss as a percentage of beer drawn from the tanks and staff hours worked. Loss is the one founders miss. If 1,000 litres left the serving tanks and the till shows 940 litres sold, 6% of your beer went somewhere. A good manager finds out where.

Hiring is the easy part. Setting up the reporting, incentives and authority so a manager can actually run the place without the founder hovering is the harder skill. Few founders get it right first time.

Your first step: write the five weekly numbers on a single page and use it as the last question of every interview.

Common questions

Should a taproom manager come from a bar or a restaurant background?

Either can work. Restaurant managers usually know people and money, bartenders know beer. Hire for the gap you cannot train, which is usually floor leadership.

Is a trial shift fair to candidates?

Yes, if it is paid and on a real service. It shows both sides whether the fit works before anyone commits.

What numbers should a taproom manager track weekly?

Sales, average spend per guest, litres sold, beer loss against beer drawn from the tanks and staff hours worked.