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 7–10 bartenders for dinner and late-night service. This is a full craft cocktail program sitting alongside a serious sake, Japanese whisky, wine and beer list, in a room that gets busy and stays busy late on weekends.

The bar here isn’t a service well with a few stools attached. It’s a destination in its own right, it’s full-service, and on weekends it carries the room after the kitchen winds down.

What You’ll Do

Behind the bar

• Execute our cocktail menu to exact spec — build, pour, glassware, ice and garnish, the same way every time, on the 200th ticket as much as the first
• Work with batched components, house syrups, infusions and a custom ice program
• Hit ticket times through peak service without letting quality or presentation slip
• Run the full beverage program with confidence — cocktails, sake, Japanese whisky, wine and beer
• Speak fluently about the sake and whisky lists, because guests at this bar will ask, and “I’m not sure” isn’t an answer we want to give twice

Taking care of guests

• Run the bar as your own dining room. You’re giving full service to the guests seated in front of you, not just filling tickets for servers
• Read the room and pace each guest — know when to engage and when to step back
• Manage the late-night shift in energy when the room moves from restaurant to bar
• Practice responsible alcohol service: check IDs, recognize when to cut someone off, and work with security to handle intoxicated guests calmly and cleanly

Opening, closing, and the parts nobody sees

• Own opening prep — batching, syrups, juice, garnish, ice, and a full par check before doors
• Own closing — breakdown, sanitation, restock, inventory counts, and securing liquor
• Track pours and waste, and flag low pars before they become a mid-service problem
• Communicate with your barback early. Tell them what you need before you’re in the weeds, not after

With the team

• Coordinate with servers on drink timing and coursing so the bar and the table stay in sync
• Support other bartenders through peak instead of running your station in isolation
• Bring problems to management during service, not after close

What We’re Looking For

• 2+ years bartending experience, upscale or craft cocktail strongly preferred
• Real command of classic cocktails, technique and balance. We’ll teach you our menu, but not how to bartend
• Genuine interest in sake, Japanese whisky or Japanese hospitality, or a real appetite to learn
• RAMP certification preferred
• Someone who holds up under late-night weekend volume without losing precision or warmth
• Clean, organized and consistent — the bartender whose station looks the same at 1 AM as it did at 5 PM
• Someone who wants to help open a restaurant, not just pick up shifts

Perks

• Shift meal every shift
• Full training on our cocktail, sake and whisky programs before we open
• Ground-floor opening team with real room to grow as we expand

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