General Manager

Position Overview

Santi, Chef Michael White’s acclaimed contemporary Italian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, is seeking an experienced and highly motivated General Manager to lead the restaurant’s front-of-house operations.

As the New York flagship of BBianco Hospitality, Santi represents Chef Michael White’s return to New York City and reflects his decades of experience in acclaimed Italian fine dining. We are seeking a General Manager who understands the level of leadership, discipline, attention to detail, and genuine hospitality required to operate a high-profile New York restaurant.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader with significant experience in Michelin-recognized, luxury, or high-end New York City restaurants. This individual must have a strong command of fine dining service, wine and beverage, guest relations, team development, and restaurant financial performance.

This is a floor-driven leadership position. The General Manager is expected to be highly visible during service, actively leading the management and service teams while developing relationships with our guests and ensuring Santi’s standards are consistently executed.

The General Manager will work closely with Chef Michael White, the Executive Chef, and BBianco Hospitality leadership and will report directly to the Executive Director of Operations.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Culture

• Lead the Santi front-of-house team with professionalism, accountability, consistency, and genuine hospitality.
• Establish a strong management presence throughout daily operations and service.
• Recruit, train, coach, and develop managers and hourly team members.
• Create clear expectations and hold managers and staff accountable for performance and service standards.
• Develop future leaders within the restaurant and maintain a strong management structure.
• Foster a culture of teamwork and mutual respect between the front and back of house.
• Lead by example and maintain a calm, professional, solution-oriented approach in a demanding New York City restaurant environment.

Guest Experience & Floor Presence

• Maintain an active and highly visible presence on the dining room floor throughout service.
• Ensure every guest receives warm, polished, knowledgeable, and personalized hospitality.
• Develop meaningful relationships with regular guests, VIPs, business clientele, industry guests, and the surrounding Midtown community.
• Maintain detailed awareness of reservations, VIPs, special occasions, guest preferences, and service notes.
• Personally handle significant guest feedback and service recovery when necessary.
• Work closely with the reservations and management teams to optimize table management, pacing, seating, and the overall guest journey.
• Protect and continually elevate Santi’s reputation and guest experience.

Service Excellence

• Maintain and continuously improve Santi’s fine dining service standards.
• Ensure consistent execution of steps of service across lunch and dinner.
• Conduct effective daily pre-service meetings and communicate relevant guest, menu, beverage, and operational information.
• Maintain exceptional standards for dining room presentation, uniforms, grooming, music, lighting, cleanliness, and overall ambiance.
• Continuously observe service and provide real-time coaching and feedback.
• Ensure managers understand their individual areas of responsibility and are actively managing the floor.

Training & Development

• Maintain a structured and comprehensive FOH training program for all new hires.
• Ensure every new employee receives a clearly defined training schedule, assigned trainers, daily follow-up, quizzes, and final management approval before working independently.
• Ensure the FOH team maintains strong knowledge of Chef Michael White, Santi, BBianco Hospitality, the menu, ingredients, culinary techniques, wine, spirits, cocktails, and service standards.
• Conduct ongoing education and training rather than limiting development to the onboarding period.
• Partner with culinary and beverage leadership on menu tastings, wine education, service training, and product knowledge.
• Regularly evaluate employee performance and identify opportunities for coaching and development.

Wine & Beverage

• Maintain a strong working knowledge of fine wine, spirits, cocktails, and luxury beverage service.
• Partner closely with the beverage and sommelier teams to maintain and elevate Santi’s wine and beverage program.
• Ensure proper wine service, storage, organization, inventory controls, and beverage standards.
• Support beverage training and ensure the broader FOH team can confidently discuss and sell the restaurant’s wine and beverage offerings.
• Monitor beverage cost, sales mix, inventory, and opportunities to increase revenue while maintaining the integrity of the guest experience.

Restaurant Operations

• Oversee daily FOH operations and ensure seamless execution of lunch and dinner services.
• Maintain appropriate staffing and management coverage based on business levels.
• Review reservations, projected covers, VIPs, staffing, events, and operational needs before each service.
• Maintain effective communication between FOH, BOH, reservations, beverage, events, and senior leadership.
• Identify operational weaknesses and implement practical solutions quickly.
• Ensure restaurant facilities, OS&E, equipment, and operational supplies are properly maintained.
• Ensure compliance with company policies and all applicable New York City health, safety, and labor requirements.

Financial & Business Management

• Take ownership of the restaurant’s operational and financial performance.
• Partner with BBianco Hospitality leadership to achieve revenue, profitability, labor, and cost-control objectives.
• Monitor labor daily and adjust staffing appropriately without compromising service standards.
• Review sales, covers, check averages, beverage performance, labor, operating expenses, and other key performance indicators.
• Participate in budgeting, forecasting, purchasing, inventory control, and expense management.
• Identify opportunities to increase revenue, improve productivity, and strengthen overall restaurant performance.
• Maintain appropriate financial controls, including cash handling, comps, voids, discounts, and purchasing procedures.

Collaboration & Communication

• Work closely with Chef Michael White, culinary leadership, and BBianco Hospitality to ensure alignment between culinary and service standards.
• Maintain strong communication between the kitchen and dining room.
• Provide senior leadership with clear and timely updates regarding staffing, operations, guest feedback, financial performance, and areas requiring attention.
• Collaborate with reservations, events, marketing, beverage, HR, and administrative teams.
• Represent Santi and BBianco Hospitality professionally within the New York hospitality community.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive management experience in high-end or fine dining restaurants.
• Previous experience as a General Manager, Restaurant Director, Assistant General Manager, or comparable senior leadership role in a respected New York City restaurant strongly preferred.
• Experience in a Michelin-recognized, luxury, chef-driven, or nationally acclaimed restaurant strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of sophisticated fine dining service and luxury hospitality.
• Proven ability to recruit, train, develop, and retain high-performing restaurant teams.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including labor management, budgeting, forecasting, and cost control.
• Strong knowledge of wine, spirits, cocktails, and fine dining beverage service.
• Exceptional communication, organizational, and leadership skills.
• Polished, professional, confident, and highly guest-focused.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to recognize service and operational issues before they impact the guest.
• Ability to remain composed and make effective decisions in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
• Experience working closely with accomplished chefs and culinary leadership preferred.
• Strong knowledge of the New York City restaurant market and clientele is highly desirable.
• Availability to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and extended hours as required by the operation.

What We Are Looking For

Above all, we are looking for a restaurant operator and hospitality leader.

The successful candidate will not manage Santi from an office. They will be present on the floor, know the guests, understand the team, recognize problems quickly, and take ownership of the restaurant’s performance.

They should have the sophistication required for a Michelin-recognized New York restaurant while also possessing the discipline and operational mindset necessary to build strong systems, develop people, drive financial performance, and consistently execute the standards of Chef Michael White and BBianco Hospitality.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to remain on your feet and actively engaged on the restaurant floor for extended service periods.
• Ability to walk, stand, bend, reach, and move throughout front- and back-of-house areas.
• Ability to occasionally lift, carry, or move items weighing up to 50 pounds.