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Executive Chef

Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden

Executive Chef

Austin, TX
Full Time
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    Hi folks, my name is Ben Siegel and I’m the owner of Banger’s Sausage House & Beer Garden. As our name implies we are a sausage house & beer garden located in downtown Austin Texas, on a funny little street called Rainey Street.

    While sausage and beer may have been what put us on the map when we opened our doors back in 2012, at the end of 2018 we completed a massive expansion on the lot adjacent to our existing facility which greatly expanded our offerings and capabilities. While that expansion was multifaceted, a lot of what we did revolved around back of house operations and opening ourselves up to do more large scale private events.

    From the time we opened our doors we’ve worked hard to make nearly all the food we serve in house, from scratch. But, as our business rapidly grew over the years, our facilities, particularly our BOH facilities, did not keep pace.

    We came to realize that in many ways, facilities and equipment are key factors in the level of excellence a chef is able to achieve. In other words, the most talented and passionate chef in the world can’t to a whole lot with a dull knife. So, we took a hard look at all of the things that we had decided to focus on from a culinary perspective and designed a series of highly specialized facilities that would allow our people to achieve excellence in whatever they were doing.

    The end result was a culinary compound that, if you’re a chef, should get your heart beating pretty fast, to put it politely. We’re talkin a dedicated room for pickling jarring and canning. A meat curing room focused on producing country hams along with other cured meats. A small scale meat processing facility for whole animal butchery and fresh sausage production (currently producing about 2,500lbs of fresh sausage a week). A standalone smokehouse that operates as the first whole hog BBQ in Texas history, in addition to smoking any meat our sausage house needs for its daily menu. There’s not one but two, 10’ wide fireplaces all designed for live-fire cooking. On top of that, we also revamped, redesigned and invested a whole lot of money into Banger’s original prep and execution kitchens.

    In addition to all of that BoH expansion, the new building allows us to transform the entire facility into a modular event space with a total standing-room capacity of 1,800 people. So, while our primary business remains the restaurant business, we now have the ability to do up to four, 300 person parties simultaneously, along with many other configurations. We did over 100 events in 2019 of 100 guests or more with many of those events being for groups of well over 1,000.

    Outside of facilities and equipment, we also invested in our company culture and our people. We have always gravitated towards being a purpose-based organization. But over the last few years, we have really taken the time to look inward and really define and memorialize what the values were that drove us. But, in addition to focusing on our culture and trying to create a wonderful place to work, over the course of the last year we also increased the base wages of our entire hourly BOH staff. I’m also proud to say that if we decide to work together, you’ll be leading the strongest collection of sous chefs and kitchen managers in our restaurant's history. So really, all we are missing is you, a leader who can tie it all together.

    What we are looking for:

    So, while your title will be Executive Chef, what we are really looking for is a leader. A leader who is passionate about food, but knows creating great food starts with people, culture and building a great team. A strategic problem solver that can zoom out and work “on the business”, creating straightforward systems that will make us more efficient and set us up for long term success. At the same time, we also need someone who isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves, hop on the line, and work “in the business” when that’s what’s needed.

    We’re looking for a chef with a deft pallet and a keen culinary mind that believes in and is excited by the type of food we serve. Sausage, beer, and BBQ probably won’t earn us a Michelin Star anytime soon, but they do allow us to feed the fine people of Austin a good honest meal at a fair price. This ability to feed the masses a high quality, made from scratch food, is core to our values as well as our concept. While we are always looking to elevate our offerings, our food should always be approachable and affordable.

    We want someone who likes to play with fire. We know that people eat with their eyes as much as their mouths and so we are always looking to take the visual aspect of what we do, especially on the events side, to a whole other level. In our eyes, that means creating dishes that can be prepared in front of guests using wood, fire, coals, and smoke. We have invested in a wide variety of specialty equipment over the years to help with this goal and have some good buddies with welding torches standing by to create more.

    A bit about EOS and what you’d be Accountable for:

    EOS stands for the Entrepreneurial Operating System. It is a business operating system we began using about two years ago to help us organize and manage the business. The whole thing focuses on combining crystal clear accountability, with a laser focus on the organization's long term goals, to create traction. EOS is outlined in detail in the book Traction by Gino Wickman. If you are serious about applying for this position, then I highly recommend you either read that book or at least do some online research to familiarize yourself with it.

    As the Executive Chef you would be specifically accountable for:

    Leadership, Management & Accountability for Your Direct Reports

    BoH SOP’s & Training

    Creation of BoH Weekly Specials

    BoH Ordering, Receiving, Inventories, & Key Vendor Relationships

    Write BoH Manager Schedules & Approval of Departmental Schedules

    BoH Budget & Margins

    Systems Creation, Quality Control & Operational Viability of Recipes

    Banger’s employees are a family and we hold ourselves accountable to the following Core Values:

    The Banger's Family is Joyful - We are kind and spread love through acts of service

    The Banger's Family is Authentic - We are who we say we are & do what we say we'll do

    The Banger's Family is Respectful - We act with integrity, even when we're weeded

    The Banger's Family is a Community - We consciously support our people, partners, and planet

    The Banger's Family is always pursuing Excellence - We do our best, every day

    Compensation & Benefits

    Comp Package:

    $80k Compensation Package (+/- Depending on experience)

    Shares in 2020 Company Profit-Sharing Plan

    $300 Monthly Internal Spending Card

    Company Health Insurance Plan

    2 Weeks Paid Vacation

    Company Computer

    Free Weekly Yoga

    Office Snacks (not quite a tech company but we’re trying)

    We are incredibly proud of the team we have built here at Banger’s, and are committed to getting the right folks into the right seats. We have invested in the Culture Index Survey to help us understand applicants better and ensure our needs match your unique skill set. So, if you feel like the above ad speaks to you, then as the first step in this process, please click the link below and fill out the survey.

    https://www.cultureindex.com/c/K6woFUMCmS

    Lastly, since we believe this position will receive a high volume of applicants, but only those that are truly qualified will take the time to read all the way through a three-page ad, the second step in the process is to please email Tony@BangersAustin.com your favorite childhood food memory.

    Thank you for your time and interest.

    All the best,

    Ben Siegel