line cook

front desk agent

dishwasher

food runner

server

Barfly

Management is a joke. No one knows what is going on. You consistently have to fight the kitchen for your food. Kitchen staff can yell at servers all day long because they’re frustrated back there, but the second a server yells back, the server gets talked to by management. Be prepared for unrealistic and unfair shifts, such as, closing at 2am on a Saturday and being an opener at 9am on a Sunday. This happens frequently and when you say something to management, they “help you out” by pushing your shift back to 10am instead of 9am. Even if you get lucky and can make it home by 3am, that’s still only 6 hours before you have to be back, 7 if they let you come in at 10. That’s unrealistic in my book. You get a 20% discount on days you don’t work and 50% on days you do work. However you can only use your 50% discount if you feel like coming in early or leaving late because no one gets breaks at hopcat. I will quote the manager, “these shifts are designed to be short enough to not need a break.” If you go outside for a cigarette while you are clocked in, you will be fired on the spot. The only decent part about this Hopcat is the employees. I’m not sure how management has been able to keep such an outstanding team with the way they run things. If a table has a problem and needs to speak to a manager, it normally takes a good 10 minutes to even find one. Not sure how they disappear like that?? It’s a very neat trick. After you’ve found a manager, that manager will wait until your tip has dwindled to nothing before finally realizing the problem didn’t just go away. There is little to no communication. You’ll go to work thinking everything is fine and then get written up for something that happened 2 months ago. Corporate Hopcat needs to clear out that management team and get an entirely new one in there if they want to save this location.

For the amount of volume this place gets, there needs to be more HELPFUL managers on the floor. If you are drowning, the 3 managers they have won’t go out of their way to help you, so good luck. The place is not set up in order to serve tables in a timely manner. The only fountain machine, is in the kitchen upstairs. The servers are expected to get their waters, sodas, etc from ONE soda gun in the corner next to the well so servers have to fight the traffic of other servers and reach over the bar to use it. Servers are REQUIRED to tip out the bartenders AND FOOD RUNNERS 1.5% of your TOTAL SALES(not alcohol sales) doesn’t matter how much you made. So naturally since bartenders are going to get tipped out regardless, they will let your tickets pile up and it is impossible to get beer to your table in a timely manner. The kitchen takes forever and makes many mistakes and nothing is done about it. So what is a server to do when they are waiting on the bartender and the cooks to do their job and they are getting the blame as to why service is taking so long. As a result, they don’t get as big as a tip as they should, and then have to give their money to the bar and food runners anyway. They can’t keep staff(for reasons above), so it is impossible for someone to cover a shift for you when you need it. The management doesn’t see that this place is not set up to serve customers efficiently and it is very sad because it has a great atmosphere, great food, and great beer. If ever want to enjoy Hopcat again, do not work here.

A typical day at work at Hopcat BR was fun, informative, and entertaining. The training program was great. I worked with the group that opened the store and we had a two week training on beer and menu items. I value all the beer knowledge I gained training and working with Hopcat BR and still love learning new things and trying different styles. Management was awesome, and there are TONS of opportunities to move up in this company. I worked there for just over 4 months and in my time being there 10-15 people were promoted or moved to different stores for new opportunities. Hopcat BR was home to the most eclectic group of co-workers ever and that was so awesome to me. Everyone has their own style of doing things and interacting with each other and guests, it really made for a cool atmosphere. The hardest part of the job for me was making my time there worth it. I have a day job so I only worked evenings and some weekends. Everyone knows and understands the money is made during the prime time on Fridays and Saturdays, but I couldn't balance working til 3 or 4am with getting up at 8am to go to my other job. The most enjoyable part of my job was the overall moral of the store. Coworkers and management kept each other going. We were always goofing off and sharing stories with each other and the guests while still providing great service.

The Holland location went from great, to an overly hyped up corporate location real quick. When the restaurant first opened, all seamed great. I think it took about a month until true colors really started to show. Out of four different managers there, only TWO really know how to handle this job. The main manager not being one of those. He does not do an absolute thing, he is rude while handling costumer complaints. Not to mention extremely rude to staff. Overall, there is hardly any professionalism from him while he is there.. As much as he tries to prove otherwise. The woman who helps manage, is like a high school girl. She is constantly talking about staff, to different staff members. I have also seen her reach out and try to be close to certain staff members, then try to get them in trouble once they've confided in her. She is constantly looking to stir the pot. Even with other managers. If more than 10 people are in the restaurant, good luck. The kitchen acts as if they haven't served once in their entire life. Orders getting mixed up left and right, and the kitchen and expo line becomes a nightmare. An ongoing issue that has become a normality at this point, its pathetic. Overall, I do not see this place lasting very long, or doing well withing this next year. Unless major changes are made.

   - Average work day:  Set up the soak sinks, clean/repair the dishwasher, start working on piled-up prep dishes. Goal is to catch up & stay caught up until the end of the night. It's pretty much impossible to keep pace during a rush, so even 5-minute breaks can be pretty hard to come by.

  - Work Environment: Moderate temperatures. Kitchen is very compact. All dish/janitorial equipment is outdated, damaged, broken, or nonexistent. One busted pipe away from total collapse. You do what you can with what you have. Bring your own rubber apron.

   - People/Culture: Amazing people. Tight-knit support network, very casual work culture. Do your best & you'll be treated right.

   - Management: Recently shaken up. Hard to really get any information/resources unless you ask for them. Dissonance between new management and old staff. Corporate doesn't provide the place enough resources. All seemed to be improving when I left.

The managers at Hopcat are passive aggressive and slave drivers. They pay you 10 cents over minimum wage (the lowest out of everyone not including servers) to clean the bathrooms, do open counts, update beer menus, take and prepare to-go orders, and this is all on top of managing two hour wait times and rude customers. It's not worth it. The management does not hold anyone responsible so sometimes we would get stuck rolling silverware and bussing tables, which are the responsibility of the servers. I've never even heard of a false wait before working there but if you've worked in the restaurant industry you know what they are and know they aren't good. We would go on one at least once a week. They told me in the interview I would be able to move up in the company but all I was told were empty promises. Also, the managers DO NOT work around your schedule as a full-time student, it's like pulling teeth. The workers there are amazing though and create a positive, welcoming atmosphere and the only reason I stayed.

Went well at first then working I slowly started to see major flaws. Schedules come out last minute so it’s hard to budget monthly or plan anything out. You have to give two weeks notice to take time off, and a month for longer periods of time off, which would be fine if we got our schedules two weeks out. You can take time off, or sick time but expect your hours to be dropped. It’s “coincidentally” happened to multiple people. Scheduling is based off work performance and they will drop your hours without explaining why. They have pre shift where they have said many times if you don’t want to work for us let us know and we won’t schedule you. Kitchen gets incentive pay based off servers sales and kitchen has no communication so ticket times are and good sits in the window for along time which leads to customers complains. To many inconsistencies with scheduling if you’re looking for a stable job.  

Upper management is now looked at as “the boys club”. All of the guys who moved up together are now running the company and they have lost touch with what actually goes on in a restaurant. They want robots. I’m pretty sure I’ll be high for the rest of my life for the amount of smoke that was blown up my…butt. They claim to be a company that puts their staff first but that is definitely not the case. I honestly loved my job and the people I worked with on the floor while I bartended. But, the lack of communication between management and hourly staff was horrible at both locations I worked at. I also ended up losing my job because of a rule that was put in place because of the people who are now enforcing it. If they really cared about their people they would have made an exception considering the reasons for breaking the rule to begin with were valid. 

The job is really not bad at all! You just have to understand that the majority of it is in a fast-paced environment and sometimes it can get overwhelming. For the most part everyone is nice to each other/works as a team. Some of the servers need major attitude adjustments/need to be let go though - but the majority of them are super nice. Management has an open-door policy and they are definitely willing to listen to what you have to say. Pretty flexible with hours, which is nice. This location is still really new so management is trying to figure it all out as far as when to schedule/how many to schedule. Hours were great during the summer, but now moving into the Fall season they're really rough/a lot of people are looking for other work. Overall, very cool environment with lots of beer, some good food, & good music always playing.

The best things about Hopcat are the unique work environment, flexible hours, friendly coworkers, and knowing that your company genuinely makes an effort to minimize their negative impact on the environment. The worst things are the lack of communication among management and between management and staff. As with most restaurants it is sometimes busy (weekend nights) and sometimes very slow (weekday afternoons). You must be okay with occasionally dealing civilly with very drunk and very rude (sober and drunk) people. They typically only hire part-time and offer no health insurance, but they did recently launch a 401K program. They are also pretty good about cross-training, if you are interested.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 96 salaries reported	$17.48 per hour
Front desk agent 27 salaries reported	$13.50 per hour
Dishwasher 31 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour
Food runner 3 salaries reported	$15.67 per hour
Server 5 salaries reported	$23.50 per hour

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