MARKET GARDEN BREWERY
Head Chef — Market Garden Brewery Group
A FLAGSHIP KITCHEN. A FLAGSHIP CHEF. KITCHENS LIKE THIS DON’T COME ALONG EVERY DAY.
Market Garden Brewery isn’t a single restaurant with a brewery attached. It’s a one-of-a-kind, multi-concept hospitality campus in the heart of Ohio City — one of Cleveland’s and the Midwest’s most celebrated neighborhoods — built around craft beer, exceptional food, and the kind of energy that makes guests come back week after week. We are Market Garden Brewpub, our Taproom & Production Brewery, Bright Side & Bird of Paradise, and Nano Brew Cleveland & Clandestina & Smoke & Mirrors: four distinct concepts, twelve-plus spaces, and a campus that generates over 200,000 guest visits annually and approaches $10 million in revenue. We love the business of creating “magic moments” for our guests every day of the year.
The Brewpub is our flagship. It’s the original. It’s the largest kitchen on campus. It’s where we host lunch, dinner, weekend brunch, late nights, and a steady drumbeat of private events — and it sits adjacent to the West Side Market, one of the great food halls in America. The menu spans elevated brewpub fare, “Cleveland Style” pizza, scratch sauces and dressings, butchered proteins, and rotating seasonal features that pair with the beer being brewed throughout our brewery campus. This kitchen has run hard for over a decade and is ready for its next chapter — and its next leader.
We’re looking for a seasoned Head Chef who already knows how to run a high-volume scratch kitchen, lead a real BOH team, control food and labor costs without compromising quality, and bring genuine creativity to the menu. Someone who walks in on Day 1 and owns it.
THE ROLE
You will run the day-to-day culinary operation of Market Garden Brewpub (3 floors, 2 kitchens, 3.5M per year in total sales) — every cover, every plate, every line cook, every special, every dollar of food and labor cost. You’ll report directly to ownership and work alongside and be a part of our Executive Team, our other concept Head Chefs (Bright Side, Nano), our GMs, and our Events team. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role in a campus where great work is noticed and rewarded.
You are not a chef looking for a quiet kitchen. You’re a chef who wants the volume, the variety, and the room to put your fingerprints on a menu that thousands of guests experience every week.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Run the full kitchen operation: service, prep, ordering, scheduling, cleanliness, line execution, plate presentation, consistency.
- Lead, hire, train, develop, and hold accountable a team of sous chefs, line cooks, prep cooks, and dish — building the kind of crew that has each other’s backs and runs hard for you.
- Own the menu: maintain the staples that built our reputation, evolve them where they need it, and develop seasonal features, specials, and beer-paired dishes in collaboration with our brew team.
- Hit your numbers: manage food cost, labor cost, and prime cost with discipline and reporting visibility — this is a metric-driven kitchen.
- Source intelligently: leverage our location next to the West Side Market and our network of local farms, butchers, purveyors, and producers to keep ingredients fresh, seasonal, and on-brand.
- Maintain the highest standards of food safety, sanitation, and equipment care — ServSafe certified or willing to certify on hire.
- Support our Events team in executing private events, rehearsal dinners, corporate buyouts, and curated nights with menus that scale and deliver.
- Show up. Be present at the rail during peak service, present at the prep table during the build, and present at the table when the executive team needs your input.
YOU ARE
✓ A proven kitchen leader — five-plus years running a high-volume scratch kitchen, with at least two of those as a Head Chef, Chef de Cuisine, or strong Sous ready to make the jump.
✓ A real cook — you can still run a station, butcher a protein, and step on the line when service demands it, and your team respects you because of it.
✓ A creative menu builder — you have a point of view, you can defend a dish, and you know how to write specials that move covers.
✓ A numbers chef — you understand food cost, labor cost, prime cost, par sheets, and inventory discipline, and you’ve hit your targets before.
✓ A teacher and developer of people — your former line cooks turn into your sous chefs, and your sous chefs go on to bigger things because of you.
✓ Calm under pressure — Saturday night at 8:15 with a packed house and an event in the back room doesn’t rattle you.
✓ A team player — you collaborate cleanly with GM, FOH, with the brewers, with the events team, with ownership. No prima donnas.
✓ Excited about beer and brewpub culture — you don’t have to be a Cicerone, but you should genuinely care about what’s pouring next door and how it lives on the plate.
REQUIREMENTS
- Five-plus years progressive kitchen leadership in a high-volume restaurant, brewpub, or similar concept
- Demonstrated experience running food cost, labor cost, scheduling, and inventory
- Proven ability to hire, train, and retain BOH talent
- ServSafe Manager certification (or willing to obtain on hire)
- Culinary degree not a requirement — what you’ve actually run matters more than where you trained
- Ability to work nights, weekends, and holidays as the business demands
- Able to stand for long periods, lift up to 75 lbs, and work in standard kitchen conditions (heat, noise, fast pace)
WHY MARKET GARDEN BREWERY
- A flagship kitchen at one of the most well-known restaurant and brewery groups in the Midwest
- Direct collaboration with our brew team and a beer program that gives you a creative canvas most chef jobs don’t offer
- Sourcing access to the West Side Market and a deep network of local farms, butchers, and producers
- A strong, established BOH & FOH team to build on — you’re not starting from zero
- Engaged ownership and management with real investment in the kitchen — not absentee operators. A completely revamped accounting system where numbers are at your fingertips.
- A growing, well-run operation with momentum, traffic, and a clear runway for menu evolution
- A fun, food-and-beer-first culture where your work is seen, valued, and celebrated
- Real career growth — we promote and reward chefs who build winning kitchens
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, performance-based bonus tied to kitchen performance metrics and company profitability, paid time off, dining and beer benefits across the campus, and the kind of environment a real chef wants to come to work in every day.
HOW TO APPLY
Ready to run it? Submit your résumé in PDF format along with a brief note telling us about the largest kitchen you’ve run, the menu you’re most proud of having built, and what excites you about a flagship brewpub kitchen. We’re moving quickly — qualified candidates will hear from us within 48 hours.
* Apply at: [email protected]
** All résumés strictly & confidentially reviewed
Pay: From $60,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Flexible schedule
- Food provided
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- Please describe your leadership style and strengths in hiring, coaching, and creating strong kitchen & hospitality culture.
- Briefly describe the largest restaurant or kitchen you've led. Include approximate annual food sales, number of BOH staff you managed, and your role/title.
- What food cost % and labor cost % targets did your most recent kitchen run at, and how did you tracked them?
- Briefly describe a dish or menu you developed that you're most proud of, and why.
Experience:
Work Location: In person
