General Manager, Valencia Café

Job Title: General Manager, Valencia Café

Hours: Full Time (40 hrs/week), some weekends, evenings, and holidays required

Department: Café and Retail

Report: COO → future Director of Retail

Wage: $84,000-$96,000/year, exempt

Location: 740 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Dandelion Chocolate is a bean‑to‑bar chocolate factory in San Francisco’s Mission District. We make chocolate from only two ingredients, cocoa beans and cane sugar, and travel to origins as often as we can to build good, trusting relationships with the producers who grow and ferment our beans. Today we’re seeking a General Manager to create a world‑class, high‑touch chocolate café experience at our Valencia Street location while also upholding our mission to be a sustainable, ethical business.

Our Valencia location is our original café experience – it’s bustling with all kinds of guests eager to pick out a gift, learn about our process, and taste chocolate. While there is no typical day at our café at 740 Valencia Street, your day might start with a meeting with the Creative team to plan a café refresh – retail signs, chalkboard art, and merchandising will all need to be spruced up.

After being open for 14 years, the store could use a little extra love. One evening a café associate texted you that they were not feeling well, so you cover the team’s lunch break. After stepping off the floor to check emails and finalize the schedule, you work with our Facilities Manager to schedule an electrician to fix the parklet solar panels.

Then, you place the supply order for the week, have 1:1s with your team members, and respond to all Yelp and Google reviews before meeting with the COO to plan for the holiday season.

Outside of the day‑to‑day tasks, you have a clear vision for how the café can continue to improve, broken into concrete quarterly milestones such as later opening hours, team greeters, a guided chocolate tasting station, and revamped merchandising. Even with ambitious plans and shifting priorities, you always make time to prioritize your team and guest service – when a café regular who you haven’t seen in a while shows up, you take the time to ask about their kids and get them their favorite drink.

There are many different types of people who could succeed in this role – whether you’re an entrepreneurial restaurant manager who craves an artisan experience or a kitchen manager who has worked in a fast‑paced, high‑volume environment who wants a more intimate, guest‑facing role. Regardless, you should have the operational chops and leadership experience to know that no plan ever goes perfectly – machines break, tour groups show up without notice, and team members have unexpected life complications.

Our ideal candidate has experience running a serious, multiple‑shift location – be it a restaurant, high‑volume café, or a high‑level service operation. We are looking for someone to own this position and build out the teams, systems, and processes to ensure that our café always runs smoothly.

• Vision: Working closely with the team develop a vision for what an iconic, exquisite chocolate café experience should be while also keeping an eye on profitability and overseeing a healthy, cohesive team. Maintain an open and clear communication line with other Managers and the COO to ensure cohesion and alignment towards the organization’s goals. Be the single point‑person responsible for the day‑to‑day success and long‑term growth of the operation.
• Department relationships: Work across the organization to build long‑lasting systems with Fulfillment, Kitchen, Product, Creative and other teams that will ensure that products and merchandise are stocked and displayed at their best.
• Track Financial Objectives: Work with the Finance team to outline actionable goals for the store’s overall profitability including reviewing monthly reports that track labor and discretionary costs.
• Guest
  
  Experience:
  
  Ensure that the store is kept to a high standard of cleanliness and organization that reflects the Dandelion Chocolate brand. This includes clean bathrooms, bussed tables, clean parklets, and stocked shelves while…