Director of Beverage

The Director, Beverage is responsible for shaping and leading Miller’s Ale House’s beverage strategy and, most importantly, the Guest experience behind the bar. This role is accountable for both People and Product, recognizing that great beverages bring Guests in, but great Bartenders and an exceptional bar experience are what make them come back.

As a key leader within Miller’s Ale House, this role will establish a differentiated beverage vision that supports the brand’s position as a high-energy, sports-oriented, value-driven destination while expanding the role beverage plays across multiple Guest occasions, including lunch, dinner, happy hour, social gatherings, sports viewing, late night, and celebrations. The Director will oversee the development and optimization of the company’s alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage portfolio, including cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, mocktails, specialty beverages, and other relevant beverage offerings. This leader will balance Guest appeal, quality, speed of service, operational simplicity, cost, and profitability to create beverage programs that are compelling for Guests and executable in hundreds of restaurants.

With most restaurants featuring two bars and the bar serving as a highly visible focal point of the restaurant, the Director, Beverage will create a bar and service culture that is energetic, welcoming, social, and distinctly our own. The goal is to make our restaurants a sought-after destination, whether a Guest is joining us for a quick drink, watching a game, meeting friends, having dinner, celebrating, or staying late. It is about creating an electric, authentic energy through great Bartenders, great hospitality, great beverages, and a genuine connection with Guests.

This role serves as the enterprise subject-matter expert for beverage and partners closely with Operations, Culinary, Marketing, Finance, Training, and vendors. The Director, Beverage ensures the Miller’s Ale House beverage strategy translates into measurable results at the restaurant level by building a program that is Guest-centric, commercially successful, operationally executable, and people-driven.

Beverage Strategy & Vision

• Develop and execute the company’s beverage strategy in alignment with brand, Guest, and financial objectives.
• Establish a differentiated beverage vision that supports the brand’s sports, value, social, and late-night positioning.
• Identify opportunities to grow beverage occasions, traffic, frequency, check average, and profitability.
• Monitor consumer, competitive, and industry trends to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Establish a balanced beverage portfolio across core, seasonal, promotional, limited-time, and premium offerings.

People & Bar Culture

• Champion a People + Product philosophy, recognizing that great beverages bring Guests in, but great Bartenders create the experience that brings them back.
• Partner with Operations and Training to develop Bartender training focused on hospitality, connection, product knowledge, selling, speed, and creating regular Guests.
• Establish service behaviors that help Bartenders recognize Guests, build relationships, anticipate needs, and create a genuine sense of belonging.
• Build a culture where Bartenders take pride in their craft, their bar, and the experience they create.
• Identify the behaviors and characteristics of high-performing Bartenders and help recruit, develop, recognize, and retain great bar talent.
• Develop tools, training, and recognition that reinforce the behaviors that create loyal Guests and high-performing bars.
• Ensure standards provide consistency without over-scripting the experience, allowing Bartenders to bring personality and authenticity to every Guest interaction.

Beverage Menu & Product Development

• Lead the development, testing, costing, pricing, and rollout of beverage menus and programs.
• Manage the beverage product lifecycle from concept and sourcing through implementation and performance evaluation.
• Develop compelling cocktails, specialty beverages, mocktails, beer, wine, and other offerings that drive Guest excitement and sales.
• Balances quality, value, speed, consistency, operational simplicity, and profitability.
• Evaluate beverage mix and make recommendations based on sales, margin, Guest preference, competitive positioning, and operational complexity.
• Partner with Culinary and Marketing to develop integrated food and beverage experiences and promotions.

Beverage Sales & Profitability

• Establish and manage beverage sales, mix, and profitability goals.
• Analyze sales, margins, pricing, attachment rates, promotional performance, and other key metrics to identify opportunities.
• Improve beverage contribution through menu engineering, pricing, product mix, promotions, and operational execution.
• Partner with Finance to develop forecasts, business cases, ROI analyses, and financial models for beverage initiatives.
• Use data and financial insights to balance Guest value with business performance and drive measurable results.

The Bar Experience

• Own the vision for a distinctive bar experience across the restaurant portfolio, making the bar a destination within the restaurant.
• Create an energetic, social, and authentic bar culture that makes Guests want to sit at the bar, return, and bring others.
• Leverage the presence of two bars in most locations to create vibrant environments that serve a variety of Guest occasions.
• Define the key elements of the bar experience, including hospitality, Bartender interaction, beverage quality, sports, music, pacing, presentation, and atmosphere.
• Ensure the experience feels electric and engaging without being manufactured, gimmicky, or cheesy.
• Identify opportunities to elevate the bar experience across sports, happy hour, late night, weekends, holidays, and other high-energy occasions.
• Regularly visit restaurants to assess the Guest experience, bar energy, and execution and share best practices across the organization.

Bar & Restaurant Operations

• Partner with Operations to ensure beverage programs are practical, efficient, and consistently executed in a high-volume restaurant environment.
• Establish standards for beverage preparation, presentation, quality, portioning, speed, cleanliness, and Guest experience.
• Evaluate bar equipment, layout, workflow, product availability, storage, and labor implications.
• Identify opportunities to improve bar productivity, profitability, and operational efficiency.
• Partner with Operations to strengthen beverage attachment and selling behaviors among Bartenders, Servers, and Managers.
• Conduct field assessments and partner with restaurant leadership to address execution opportunities.

Late-Night, Sports & Social Occasions

• Develop beverage strategies that strengthen the brand’s position as a destination for sports, social gatherings, and late night.
• Create beverage experiences and promotions that encourage Guests to stay longer, engage more, and return more frequently.
• Partner with Marketing and Operations to capitalize on major sporting events, holidays, seasonal occasions, and other traffic-driving moments.
• Ensure beverage and bar experiences complement the energy and social nature of these occasions while maintaining operational discipline.

Marketing & Brand Partnership

• Partner with Marketing to ensure beverage programs and the bar experience are strategically positioned and aligned with the brand.
• Provide beverage expertise for promotions, menu development, digital marketing, social media, and in-restaurant communications.
• Develop compelling beverage platforms that can translate into strong consumer-facing marketing and traffic-driving campaigns.
• Ensure beverage initiatives are supported by clear Guest messaging and strong restaurant execution.

Training & Field Enablement

• Partner with Training and Operations to develop scalable training and tools for beverage programs and bartender development.
• Establish clear training expectations for new beverage launches, service standards, and operational changes.
• Partner with Training and Operations to develop simple tools that enable restaurant Teams to execute consistently while delivering an authentic Guest experience.
• Support field leadership in identifying and addressing execution gaps.
• Serve as the company’s beverage and bar-experience subject matter expert and resource for restaurant leadership.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Maintain a forward-looking beverage innovation pipeline informed by Guest insights, industry trends, competitive activity, and business performance.
• Test new products, concepts, equipment, service models, and Guest experiences before broader implementation.
• Establish disciplined test-and-learn processes with clear performance criteria.
• Continuously identify opportunities to improve Guest experience, People performance, quality, efficiency, and profitability.
• Ensure innovation is scalable and adds value without creating unnecessary operational complexity.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as the company’s beverage and bar-experience expert and advocate.
• Build strong partnerships across Operations, Culinary, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Training, and other RSC functions.
• Influence senior leaders and field operators through data, business insight, and a deep understanding of restaurant operations.
• Clearly communicate beverage priorities, initiatives, expectations, and performance to executive and field leadership.
• Lead through influence, creating alignment and accountability across functions and levels of the organization.
• Foster a culture of hospitality, innovation, urgency, accountability, and continuous improvement.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality, Business, Culinary, Food & Beverage Management, or related field preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive beverage, bar, restaurant, hospitality, or food and beverage leadership experience, preferably within a multi-unit restaurant environment.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing beverage programs across multiple locations.
• Strong understanding of beverage economics, menu engineering, pricing, product mix, and restaurant profitability.
• Demonstrated ability to translate consumer and industry trends into commercially successful programs.
• Strong understanding of restaurant operations and the realities of executing programs at scale.
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate with senior executives and field leadership.
• Strong analytical, financial, communication, and presentation skills.
• Ability to balance creativity and innovation with operational discipline and financial accountability.
• Willingness to travel regularly to restaurants, suppliers, industry events, and other business locations.
• budget.
• Increased brand awareness and Guest consideration.
• Experience leading beverage strategy for a large, multi-unit full-service casual or high-volume restaurant organization.
• Experience with sports-oriented, entertainment, bar-forward, or late-night restaurant concepts.
• Experience managing both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage portfolios.
• Strong supplier and distributor relationships.
• Experience with beverage menu development, cocktail innovation, beer strategy, wine, and emerging NA categories.
• Experience leading beverage initiatives across a geographically dispersed restaurant portfolio.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

This position is expected to perform the job functions with reasonable accommodation.  Physical demands include:

• Remaining in a stationary position for extended periods
• Bending, squatting, and lifting (up to 25 lbs.)
• Moving throughout the restaurant for periods of time; including both the front and back of the house
• Occasionally stretching or climbing a ladder to retrieve bottles of alcohol from behind the bar
• Occasional movement inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Consistently operates a computer and other office productivity machinery (i.e., calculator, copy machine, and printer).