About this role
Kitchen Manager / Back of House (BOH) Operations Manager
Top Shooters — Columbia, IL | Full-Time | $52,000–$57,000 base + quarterly performance bonus tied to profit (potential: $10K–$14K+/year*)
Done Living on the Line?
If you've spent years running a busy kitchen while owners kept promising raises and "next promotion" talks that never happened — and you're ready to actually run a kitchen instead of just surviving it — keep reading.
About Us
Top Shooters is a high-energy, high-volume sports bar and restaurant in Columbia, IL, with a loyal local following and 50k+ fans who show up on game day. We do the kind of volume that competes with national franchises, but we've kept the feel of a locally owned business.
We don't just say we have a positive culture — we work to live it. No role here is too small to have a voice, and when we make a promise to our team, we keep it.
We're hiring a Kitchen Manager / BOH Operations Manager to own the back-of-house systems, people, and performance. This is a leadership role first, and a "jump on the line when it's slammed" role second.
What You'll Own
• BOH operations: prep, line, expo, and close running to standard every shift
• Training and development for line cooks and shift leads
• Ordering, inventory, and waste logs — including making sure waste actually gets logged
• Labor planning and BOH schedules, especially for game days and big events
• Health code, sanitation, and safety compliance
• Collaborating on menu tweaks, specials, and execution
What Success Looks Like in Your First 90 Days
• Efficient ticket times
• Food cost managed, with waste tracked and reduced
• BOH fully staffed with a small bench
• A clean, organized kitchen that passes internal and external inspections
• A team of about 12 that knows the standards and actually follows them
What You Get
• Base salary: $52,000–$57,000/year, based on experience
• Quarterly performance bonuses: real money, tied directly to how the kitchen and the restaurant perform — not a flat number, and not an all-or-nothing bonus. Each quarter, the Kitchen Manager earns a share of the restaurant's profit performance, split across three areas you directly control: sales growth, labor cost management, and compliance/training. Hit some targets and miss others? You still earn the portion you hit. Because it's tied to profit, there's no set ceiling — a strong quarter pays out more, a soft quarter pays out less. Based on this year's budget, that typically adds up to meaningful additional income, in the $10,000–$14,000+ range annually* on top of base pay, with real upside if the restaurant outperforms.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance, PTO, and employee discounts
• A high-volume sports bar with real systems, not nightly chaos
• Owners and managers who actually follow through on reviews and raises — not just talk about them
• A kitchen that's already functioning; your job is to level it up, not save a dumpster fire
*Example range only, based on this year's budgeted performance and the assumption bonus criteria are met each quarter. Actual amounts are tied to real quarterly profit and are not guaranteed — they can land above or below this range depending on restaurant performance.
This Is You
• You've led a BOH, line, or kitchen in a busy bar or casual dining concept
• You like organizing people, training, and dialing in systems
• You're fine jumping on the line when it's slammed, but don't want that to be your whole job
• You care about the numbers — food cost, labor, ticket times — not just getting through the rush
• You're tired of broken promises and want a place that measures performance and actually rewards it
$52,000–$57,000 base salary + Quarterly Bonuses