JASON FURGATCH

Led and developed a team of up to eight managers across multiple sites, overseeing key operational areas including Front of House, Dish Machine Operations, Administration, and Receiving. Served as a primary vendor point of contact, facilitating communications between regional and local client Chefs and the North America Experience Manager. Responsibilities included coordinating with cross-functional vendor teams—such as facilities, janitorial, and procurement—to support café operations by ensuring compliance with HACCP and safety protocols, managing equipment maintenance, and confirming product needs and availability. Delivered ongoing guidance, support, and mentorship to team leaders to enhance effectiveness and cultivate an environment of responsibility, teamwork, and authentic hospitality while maintaining reliable standards for food excellence, service delivery, and guest satisfaction throughout all locations.

• Standardized processes across multiple sites and work areas to improve efficiency and production, developed new tracking systems to increase accountability, and created updated SOPs to address operational challenges and enhance the guest experience
• Led the successful opening and decommissioning of multiple cafes across sites by coordinating smallware procurement, planning space utilization and guest traffic flow, developing and training staff on standard operating procedures, and collaborating with clients and vendors to inventory, redistribute, and efficiently clear spaces for turnover
• Tested and implemented new software solutions for safety control and logging measures, ensuring reliable system performance, compliance with safety standards, and enabling metric tracking and trend analysis to support data-driven decision making and continuous improvement.

Oversaw daily operations of casual dining and bar facility with 65 staff members and $4M in annual sales. Project weekly sales based on current year’s trends and previous year’s sales to determine staffing needs and inventory requirements. Help schedule and evaluate staff. Audit safety and sanitation measures before independent inspections. Launch incentive programs to raise productivity, employee satisfaction, and inventory movement.

• Train staff on Hospitality, customer service, and culinary standards to ensure superior overall guest experience and maintain guest metrics above brand standards.
• Operational focus and use of People Tools resulting in over 70% improvement YoY KPI results moving from bottom 10% of brand to near top 25%
• Development and Coaching of Management teams at various locations to help achieve area goals

Supervised casual dining and bar locations seating 279 guests with 30 staff and $1M in annual sales. Directed transition from Bennigan’s franchise operation to Last Call sole proprietorship. Helped create strategies, layout, and design for print advertising/promotional collateral. Recruited, trained, and scheduled full working staff, including management. Reviewed and altered menu choices to feature area favorites based on cost and profitability. Planned and completed interior remodeling project to improve customer movement in key profit centers. Achieved balance of service and cost to ensure profitability. Revamped procurement procedures to ensure timely and cost-effective purchasing. Increased employee retention.

• Met and exceeded budgeted food/beverage and labor projections.
• Administered operations of staff management, customer/vendor relations, budget, inventory control, and purchasing resulting in 75% in increased sales within the first year of transition.
• Improved quality and effectiveness of service standards, food presentation, sanitation practices, preventative maintenance, and general upkeep of equipment, facility, and grounds.
• Implemented new POS hardware/software and trained staff on use.