Job Description

About Us

Palm Vintage is two restaurants in one room.

From 7 AM to 4 PM we’re a café — espresso, pastries, sandwiches, the kind of place the neighborhood and the residents upstairs come to every morning. At 5 PM the room turns over, the lights come down, and we become a Japanese sushi restaurant with a full craft cocktail bar, running until midnight on weekdays and 2 AM on weekends.

We’re at 1414 South Penn Square, at the base of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, steps from City Hall. It’s an intimate space — dining room, bar and patio — which means there’s no back corner to hide a table in. Every seat is visible, every plate and every glass is on display, and the details land. That’s the standard we’re building around.

We open this September. Everyone we hire over the next few weeks is opening team, which means you won’t be inheriting someone else’s systems. You’ll be helping build ours.

The Role

We’re hiring 6–10 servers for dinner service. This is an upscale room with a serious sushi menu and a full craft cocktail program, and a good number of guests will sit down to a menu they don’t fully know how to order from.

That’s the job. You’re not taking orders, you’re guiding people through an experience — and how well you do that is most of what separates a good night from a great one.

What You’ll Do

Guiding the table

• Open the table with a greeting and a read. Figure out quickly whether you’re with regulars who know exactly what they want, or first-timers who need a hand
• Walk guests through the sushi menu with real fluency — nigiri versus sashimi versus maki, what fish is in right now, what’s best raw, and what to order in what order
• Make confident, specific recommendations instead of “everything’s good,” including cocktail, sake and wine pairings that actually fit what they ordered
• Present daily specials and off-menu items clearly and accurately
• Close the table well — dessert, check presentation, and a farewell that makes people want to book again

Timing and the floor

• Course a sushi table properly. It does not follow a standard American appetizer-entrée rhythm. You’ll pace the table, fire in the right sequence, and stay in step with the kitchen
• Manage your full section with strong timing, table maintenance and clean resets
• Work in sync with the bar so drinks land when they should, not all at once
• Run food for other sections and support your teammates without being asked

Knowledge and accuracy

• Know the menu cold — ingredients, preparation, allergens, and which modifications are allowed and which aren’t
• Handle allergies and dietary restrictions with total accuracy. Shellfish, soy, gluten and raw fish questions come up constantly here, and there’s no room for a guess
• Enter tickets accurately in the POS, including modifications and coursing
• Follow VIP procedure and complaint recovery the way we train it

The operational side

• Carry a bank each night to make your own change, and settle out at the end of the shift
• Complete opening and closing side work, station stock and section resets
• Attend pre-shift meetings daily — that’s where specials, 86s and VIPs get covered

What We’re Looking For

• 2+ years serving experience, upscale or fine dining strongly preferred
• Genuine curiosity about Japanese cuisine, sushi and cocktails. We’ll teach you the menu in full, but you have to want to learn it
• The ability to describe food and drink in a way that makes someone want to order it
• Composed under pressure, and a real teammate when the room is full
• Precise with allergies, tickets and details
• RAMP certification preferred
• Evening and weekend availability
• Someone who wants to help open a restaurant and grow with it

Perks

• Shift meal every shift
• Full menu, sake, wine and cocktail training before we open
• Ground-floor opening team with room to grow as we expand

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