Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Websites
Certification
Assessments
Accomplishments
Work Availability
Affiliations
Work Preference
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Kimberly Smalls

Kimberly Smalls

Food and Beverage Director
Saint Augustine,FL

Summary

Accomplished food and beverage professional dedicated to efficiently organizing and directing restaurant organizations. Quality-driven, attentive and focused on maximizing team performance, food quality and work efficiency. Ambitious with a proven track record of creating successful operations, and increasing profits. Extensive experience Well-versed in hospitality above an beyond standards customer service skills. Providing only the highest level of service to customers and creating pleasant work environment for staff.

Overview

25
25

Years of professional food and beverage experience

3
3
Certification

Work History

Restaurant Dining Services Director

The Plantation at Ponte Vedra
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
12.2023 - Current
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Established effective interdepartmental communication to facilitate smooth coordination during the renovation of Plantation House.
  • Enhanced the fine dining atmosphere at a Country Club by training and mentoring current staff, as well as recruiting highly skilled individuals.
  • Assisted in renovating the Beach House while adhering to budgeting guidelines, evaluating staffing needs, providing training, and developing menus for production.
  • Introduced Table Touch Program to enhance service experience for members and guests
  • Resolved problems, improved operations and provided exceptional service.
  • Used strong analytical and problem-solving skills to develop effective solutions for challenging situations.

Restaurant Dining Services Manager

Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club
Coral Gables, FL
04.2023 - 11.2023
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Maximized productivity by creating a balanced creative team environment
  • Implemented activity monitoring to optimize daily operations for lunch and dinner service protocols, resulting in a 32% reduction in food and beverage cost within the first 3 months.
  • Enhanced member guest table touch program to generate feedback for food, beverage, and service, increasing lunch and dinner attendance by 30% as well as boosting special event bookings at the club.
  • Streamlined workforce management by developing efficient shift scheduling strategies that prioritized employees' availability and commitment.
  • Greeted guests, sat at tables and brought orders to assist front of house staff.
  • Designed overall floorplans and coordinated modifications for events and special reservations.

Food and Beverage Guest Relations Director

94TH AERO SQUADRON RESTAURANT
Miami, FL
05.2019 - 02.2022
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Ensured effective communication with guests before, during, and after their dining experience, resulting in established trust and satisfaction
  • Led efforts in addressing and resolving guest complaints professionally by providing prompt follow-up actions, optimizing guest recovery outcomes, and coordinating with various departments.
  • Focused on enhancing the performance of struggling departments
  • Supported team through active involvement in day-to-day operations, conducting meetings and performance reviews for staff development.
  • Facilitated the production of weekly complaint reports for various departments, conducting thorough data analysis and offering actionable suggestions to enhance guest satisfaction.

Executive Director Food & Beverage /Sales and Events

Seafair Miami Mega Yachts
Miami, FL
02.2022 - 02.2023
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Led operations on a prestigious Mega Yacht catering to exclusive clientele for various occasions such as Social, Corporate, Pharma, and DMC events both at sea and dockside.
  • Exercised appropriate cost control to meet budget restrictions and maximize profitability.
  • Achieved above-target sales objectives both quarterly and annually
  • Generated $3.1M within a 12-month span
  • Consistently achieved targets of keeping food expenses below 20% and beverage expenses under 18%
  • Achieved a 20% increase in profit margins on outside sales through effective vendor negotiations.
  • Monitored compliance with laws and regulations to protect organization from legal liabilities and penalties.
  • Built and maintained strong company teams by hiring and training qualified staff to create positive and productive work environments.

Co-Owner Food and Beverage Director

Chef Shack Fire Kitchen Bistro Fusion Food Truck
Miami, FL
11.2018 - 02.2022
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Constructed a fully-functional designer Food Truck with a length of 14 ft
  • Established sales and marketing plans based on geographical demographics for 4 distinct market sectors, creating tailored menus that catered to each location within the Miami area.
  • Successfully orchestrated multiple events with attendance reaching up to 200 people at both Vizcaya Museum & Garden and Zoological Wildlife Foundation. a long with Jackson Hospital ER Doctors
  • Delivered homemade cultural fare and drinks to approximately 75-100 customers daily for four days a week or until items were sold out.
  • Managed purchasing, sales, marketing and customer account operations efficiently.
  • Networked with other businesses and customers to increase sales opportunities and contacts.
  • Developed marketing materials and campaigns to boost brand awareness and customer engagement.
  • Conducted target market research to scope out industry competition and identify advantageous trends.

Private Dining Director/ Liaison to the Operating Partner and Chef Partner

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
Coral Gables, FL
02.2016 - 03.2019
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Managed a wide range of responsibilities encompassing front of house and back of house operations including organizing private event schedules, overseeing food and beverage deliveries, and addressing maintenance requirements in the restaurant.
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Motivated staff to perform at peak efficiency and quality.
  • Coordinated all phases of corporate and social events in a restaurant setting while providing program planning guidance, menu selection support, and actively seeking out local group catering opportunities to uphold service quality.
  • Sustained a continuous 15% decrease in food and beverage expense on a monthly basis for two years
  • Elevated social catering sales by an impressive 35% within the inaugural year
  • Successfully constructed a robust client database, surpassing the previous year's repeat business for high end events by an impressive margin of 32%.
  • Successfully achieved and surpassed the high-end client goals for 2018, exceeding the previous year's target by an additional 38%
  • Achieved a remarkable 41% increase over the target in December 2018.

Director Catering Events Sales and Marketing

SHULA'S HOTEL AND GOLF CLUB
Miami Lakes, FL
01.2014 - 12.2016
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Successfully organized and conducted various events utilizing a significant amount of meeting space totaling over 15,000 sq ft
  • Strategically planned operations to minimize costs while ensuring exceptional service provision
  • Transformed catering sales and operations through training and mentoring, bringing new life to the department in just 6 months.
  • Delivered an exceptional performance, surpassing the yearly individual goal by 124%
  • Achieved a surpassing performance of $27k over the AV actual for 2014, along with surpassing the 2015 actual by $28k.
  • Successfully met company assigned budget by improving upselling techniques and effectively soliciting high-end clients.
  • Maintained food costs below 26% and beverage costs below 21%
  • Generated impressive growth through a 25% boost in overall social catering sales within the initial year.
  • Managed all vendor negotiations resulting in a 20% increase in outside sales profit margins
  • Cultivated talent of several employees promoted to sales-level positions within the organization and mentored the catering sales team and the hotel sales team to be cohesive for additional financial gain in bottom-line profit growth, from 2% to over 10% each month.
  • Achieved higher bottom line profit by bridging the gap between catering sales team and hotel sales team, orchestrating site inspections, and presenting all-inclusive proposals for F&B and Hotel Room Rates
  • Consistently increased monthly growth rate from 2% to beyond 10%.

Restaurant Manager/Director of Catering

Rusty Pelican Restaurant
Key Biscayne, FL
01.2004 - 12.2014
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Promoted positive atmosphere and went above and beyond to guarantee each customer received exceptional food and service.
  • Commanded catering and special events operations generating 35% of total revenue with P&L accountability
  • Stimulated business development through strategic marketing initiatives to cultivate corporate event bookings
  • Oversaw special events of up to 1000 guests in alignment with customer preferences while adhering to budgetary guidelines
  • Build and train top-performing team through one-on-one coaching and group instruction
  • Ranked #1 in catering sales for 4 consecutive years, personally generating $2M+ first year / $4M+ 3rd yr
  • Maintained food costs under 30% and beverage costs under 21%
  • Increased overall catering sales by 49%
  • Led vendor negotiations to expand profit margins on outside sales by 25%
  • Cultivated talent of 4 staff members promoted to director-level positions within SRC organization
  • Created attractive brochure design promoting wedding packages that was implemented across additional US locations.

Beach Bar & Grill Restaurant Manager/Director of Catering

THE OCEAN CLUB KEY BISCAYNE
Key Biscayne, FL
01.2000 - 12.2003
  • Major Accomplishments:
  • Developed solid partnerships with food and beverage director, head chef, and banquet manager
  • Met with clients to outline desired goals and prepared quotes for overall catering costs.
  • Facilitated menu tastings, inventory management, purchasing scheduling, and client relations
  • Launched a successful catering department and Beach Bar & Grill Restaurant, procuring all equipment and negotiating initial service agreements.
  • Successfully implemented a catering service which led to a 47% growth in overall revenue, with $9 million generated from exclusive weekend sales events.
  • Achieved a remarkable 35% increase in revenue for a thriving bar and grill restaurant during the first year of tenure.

Education

Associate in Business Management -

Florida Community College of Jacksonville
Jacksonville, FL
01.1994

Associate of Science - Food And Beverage Management

Johnson & Wales University - Charleston
Charleston SC

Skills

  • Restaurant Operations
  • Service Quality Standards
  • Schedule Management
  • Sanitation Standards
  • Menu development
  • Waste Reduction
  • Supply Ordering
  • Cost Control
  • Service Delivery Management
  • Beverage knowledge
  • Labor Management
  • Wine pairing
  • Training
  • Mentoring
  • Relationship Building
  • Recruitment
  • Strategic Planning
  • Quality Assurance
  • Performance Improvement
  • Team building
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Decision-Making
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Profit and loss
  • Catering Services
  • Profitability Optimization
  • Training and Onboarding
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Health Code Compliance
  • Hiring and recruitment
  • Point of Sale (POS) system operation
  • Order delivery practices
  • Natural leader
  • Operations management
  • Budgeting
  • Recipes and menu planning

Certification

ServSafe, CFM, HACCP, Halal Awareness Training, Kosher Certificate, CPR

Assessments

  • Management & leadership skills: Planning & execution, Proficient, May 2024, Planning and managing resources to accomplish organizational goals
  • Inside sales, Proficient, June 2024, Understanding and responding appropriately in sales scenarios, and performing common sales calculations
  • General manager (hospitality), Proficient, June 2024, Solving group scheduling problems and reading and interpreting P&L statements
  • Management & leadership skills: Impact & influence, Proficient, June 2024, Choosing the most effective strategy to inspire and influence others to meet business objectives
  • Sales skills, Proficient, May 2024, Influencing and negotiating with customers

Accomplishments

Knowledge Speaks but Wisdom Listens, and by Listening I gained the Knowledge to Overcome many Challenges, enjoy the Wins and Share my Talents.

Work Availability

monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Affiliations

  • Rotary International
  • NACE
  • Chaîne des Rôtisseurs

Work Preference

Work Type

Full Time

Work Location

On-Site

Important To Me

Work-life balanceCompany CultureHealthcare benefitsCareer advancementFlexible work hours

Quote

Yes is the Answer What is the Question. Customer Satisfaction is Never Unachievable.

Software

OpenTable

Tripleseat

Jonas

Toast

POSI Touch

Square

Excel

Publisher

Languages

English
Native language

Timeline

Restaurant Dining Services Director

The Plantation at Ponte Vedra
12.2023 - Current

Restaurant Dining Services Manager

Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club
04.2023 - 11.2023

Executive Director Food & Beverage /Sales and Events

Seafair Miami Mega Yachts
02.2022 - 02.2023

Food and Beverage Guest Relations Director

94TH AERO SQUADRON RESTAURANT
05.2019 - 02.2022

Co-Owner Food and Beverage Director

Chef Shack Fire Kitchen Bistro Fusion Food Truck
11.2018 - 02.2022

Private Dining Director/ Liaison to the Operating Partner and Chef Partner

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
02.2016 - 03.2019

Director Catering Events Sales and Marketing

SHULA'S HOTEL AND GOLF CLUB
01.2014 - 12.2016

Restaurant Manager/Director of Catering

Rusty Pelican Restaurant
01.2004 - 12.2014

Beach Bar & Grill Restaurant Manager/Director of Catering

THE OCEAN CLUB KEY BISCAYNE
01.2000 - 12.2003

Associate in Business Management -

Florida Community College of Jacksonville

Associate of Science - Food And Beverage Management

Johnson & Wales University - Charleston

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Kimberly SmallsFood and Beverage Director