Director of Food & Hospitality

At T&J Travel Centers, we're redefining what a travel center can be - a place where guests experience genuine hospitality, not just convenience. We serve hardworking men and women and their local communities with great fuel, a strong convenience store experience, and craveable made-to-order food through our in-house restaurant The Tarzan Grill.

We're growth-minded and people-first. Our teams run lean, lead humbly, care deeply, and stay hungry- because the standard is simple: fast, friendly, and spotlessly clean, every day.

At T&J Travel Centers, we're redefining what a travel center can be: a place where guests experience genuine hospitality, not just convenience. We combine craveable food, spotless facilities, and friendly local service that feels like home.

Own the food: every item that comes out of any T&J kitchen, every guest's experience at Tarzan Grill, and a grab-and-go program built on deli offerings made fresh in-house every day.

You'll be the leader of everything we cook and serve: responsible for food quality, speed, consistency across every kitchen, the grab-and-go program, and the Kitchen Managers who run it all day to day.

Your success will be measured by how well you:

• Hold every kitchen to the same standard for quality, portion and ticket time, and review the numbers weekly
• Write the spec for every menu item and build the brand book a new store can open from
• Own kitchen training: the curriculum, station certification, and follow-up to make sure it sticks
• Build and coach a bench of Kitchen Managers who are trained and ready to step up
• Launch and run the grab-and-go deli at every store, with fresh product in the case from open to close
• Protect the menu: new items earn their place on speed and quality, and come off if they slip

• Five or more years in multi-unit food operations, at director or area manager level
• Experience running a kitchen that cooks from raw product
• Recipe, SOP and food cost systems you have built yourself
• A record of holding quality and speed standards across several stores at once

• Culinary degree or formal culinary education
• Experience as a head chef, including menu design at a busy fast casual
• Bilingual, English and Spanish. This would be a big advantage in this role
• Experience building teams
• A record of humble leadership

• A family-style culture built on respect, teamwork, and humility
• Real ownership:
  Craveable Food is one of our six core values, and you're accountable for it
• Competitive salary, performance bonuses, and recognition for excellence
• A hands-on job in kitchens: long stretches standing and walking, and lifting up to 50 pounds

Respect the guest in front of you and the teammate beside you.

If you see it, you own it. The restroom, the parking lot, the whole store.

Make it worth driving across town for. Every single time.

Go first. No job is beneath us.

Good today isn't good enough tomorrow. Ask for the harder job.