Michael ajisafe

• Created policies and procedures to ensure compliance with industry standards.
• Oversaw the recruitment process for new service personnel and conducted interviews with prospective candidates.
• Consulted with staff on resolution of complex service issues.
• Provided guidance and mentoring to junior staff members on how they can better handle challenging situations when dealing with guests.
• Conducted regular reviews of existing processes and procedures related to guest service activities, and made recommendations for improvements where necessary.
• Verified team compliance with established procedures and protocols critical to successful services.
• Provided hands-on and proactive leadership to staff.
• Performed most standard managerial functions.

Grand Banks is a unique house. it is a seasonal restaurant that is open from April to November. it is a restaurant on a 82 feet yacht, with a 115 seat capacity. the work day on GB is daunting with several challenges that is usually not a issue in standard houses. it operates 12 hours a day on weekdays extra 2 hours on saturday and Sunday due to brunch. the busiest days are between Thursdays and sundays, with an average cover count of 1000 guests per day. and Wednesday is an average of 700 guests. on those days, we run with a 4 member host team, 9 to 11 people server team and a 5 person bartender team plus 2 barbacks. my focus were;

• detail focus on service by touching every table, recognizing every birthday, greeting every VIP table and executing the reservation request for items to send, touching every table that had an extensive wait time at hostess station and greeting them with glasses of sparkling wine to recover the table.
• working closely with host staff to seat guests rapidly by setting up empty tables quickly and turning tables over to seat newer tables timely. organized the host team to make the team quick and effective for the challenging service that puts tough demands on the host station.
• worked to train staff and manage them. holding staff accountable was a point of focus, due to mistake in hiring by prior management. we had a group of staff that were problematic. we had a strict set of steps for documenting as part of our discipline protocol that had to be religiously followed to ensure that the problematic group of staff were held accountable.
• I was a point person for events, working closely with event managers to ensure smooth execution.
• focused on schedule to ensure labor cost remained no hire than 9% by cutting appropriately or calling staff out if the business did not dictate the need for the staff member.
• lead efforts to get an A rating from the DOH by staying in a state of readiness, keeping the house clean to DOH specs. there was a daily manager checklist that contains DOH required standard for different areas; bar stations, walk-in, kitchen, bathroom, etc..
• was responsible for highlighting negative reviews daily on resy, investigating the incident, and responding to the guest in a recovery attempt.
• despite the number of staff we had, management as a whole were still involved in full service and had to back up the servers and bartenders. one reason is that the servers were not fast enough. second was tthat he volume of covers on busy days put a lot of pressure on service to flip tables in time for the next guests. management took orders, took payments, ran food to table, ran drinks, got behind the bar to cover for bartenders, bussed tables, took out garbage, assist oyster shockers. cover for expediters. we were fully involved.
• Enhanced team engagement and performance with daily updates and informational meetings.
• Motivated and led team members to work together to achieve targets.
• Completed thorough opening, closing and shift change functions to maintain operational standards each day.
• Used excellent verbal skills to engage customers in conversation and effectively determine needs and requirements.

Royalton Park Avenue consists of a dining room, roof top, swimming pool lounge, and a large ball ballroom space open daily and is also used as event space.

• Motivated and led team members to work together to achieve targets.
• Managed and mentored staff to carry out operational directives with high productivity and accuracy.
• Disciplined and maintained staff to deliver hospitable, professional service reflecting business initiatives.
• Applied knowledge of coverage needs and individual employee strengths to produce successful team schedules.
• Enhanced team engagement and performance with daily updates and informational meetings.
• Placed new inventory orders and oversaw correct restocking procedures to maintain operational output.
• Oversaw payroll preparation and administration for staff.
• Completed thorough opening, closing and shift change functions to maintain operational standards each day.
• Provided leadership, insight and mentoring to newly hired employees to supply knowledge of various company programs.nnnnnn

Catria is a brand inside of a Marriott in midtown, offering modern Italian cuisine. It was the only F&B outlet in the signature property. We also catered In Room Dinning. I was part of the opening team.

my duties involved;

• system set up,
• service protocol set up and enforcement,
• staff work (from hiring to training and organization),
• revenue generation initiatives,
• ordering inventory,
• payroll,
• report generation for analytics,
• hotel liaison,
• floor work involving maintaining service standards and directing staff job execution,
• creating guest experience,
• enforcing steps of service.

It was not a big team. But we were certainly effective. My work was pivotal to our opening and set up efforts.

Lambs Club was a fine dining restaurant concept owned & operated by Geoffrey Zakarian, acclaimed & Michelin star celebrity chef. I was hired at a transitional period when a new team was brought in.

The challenge that my team was brought in to correct was critical to the reputation and bottom line of the restaurant. It was providing quality food and service, within the time restrictions of pre-theatre dinning. our focus was attention to service and guest experience, along with a skillfully curated menu. some of our strategy included:

• Structuring the books in the reservation office
• Adjusting Walk-in policy
• Adjusting incomplete seating policy
• In the event of a late arrival, advising guests on realistic menu options to facilitate timely arrival to shows
• Revising the menu by adding a 3 course pre-fixe, pre-theatre menu, and training staff on recommendations to guests on menu items to choose, based on the time of arrival.
• Updating the POS SOP to include guest preferred completion time as a guide for the kitchen staff, chefs, and food runners
• Staffing the kitchen with more cooks to help bolster speed
• Adjusting cooking protocols, for instance in cooking steak; Kitchen adopted cooking steak to a RARE temperature to save cooking time, in comparison to cooking from raw, during pre-theatre. That of course were only the most commonly ordered cuts; Tomahawk steak not included.

We enhanced service by retraining staff.

For guest experience, we added, 'eye catchers' like the martini carts. We also added the Truffle Cart during truffle season and table side shaving of the truffles.

service and guest experience were my specialty. and I was effective at teaching staff; from the 5/10 rule, to synchronize service, to marking tables and positions to drop and clear. I was promoted to the position of F&B director when the position opened up.

Before taking over in room dining, it was disorganized, without leadership. it showed in hotel guest reviews. the department was added to my set of responsibilities because i was proven to get results. i proceeded to set up SOPs for answering phone, prompt pick up service, executing morning breakfast delivery, restructuring delivery tray placements & design, enforcing delivery protocols to room. i brought in a trusted cook for overnight In Room Dining shift.

our revenue the first year was $10,837,411.16. we did $14,257,045.96 in sales the following year. we got a boost from the events dept. We received four stars from Forbes. And our account of influential people and companies rose; from Bill Clinton to Conde Naste. we improved on, FOOD, and GUEST EXPERIENCE. And I played a pivotal part in that improvement.