cook

cook/dishwasher

store manager

assistant restaurant manager

chef manager

Ram Restaurant & Brewery


From the start, this workplace showed significant leadership and accountability challenges. During the interview process, I noticed red flags when asking about scheduling and work-life balance. The onboarding process took over a month, and when I finally started, training was abruptly cut short, leaving me unprepared and treated as just a “warm body” with keys. Schedules were often provided one day at a time, and leadership schedules were frequently shared last minute—sometimes as late as Sunday night for the following Monday or not at all.

There were ongoing issues with scheduling transparency. Agreements made during meetings were often disregarded, leading to completely different schedules than discussed. Approved time-off requests frequently resulted in pushback, with employees being harassed about taking their scheduled vacations or being forced to adjust dates last minute.

The overall service culture operated at an average or below-average standard. For individuals passionate about delivering excellent customer service, this environment might be frustrating, as the leadership often seemed more focused on micromanaging than fostering improvement. Leadership behaviors came across as retaliatory, disorganized, and inconsistent, which created unnecessary challenges rather than enhancing the work environment.

Compensation and Benefits:

No 401(k) match or program.
No paid holidays on days when the location is closed—vacation days must be used instead.
Unequal pay: Men were paid higher wages despite having comparable or less experience.
Limited discounts: Family discounts only apply if married and dependents  under 18. Employee discounts are limited to three drinks, with no discounts on bottles of wine, growlers, kegs, or takeout food.
Training and Development:
The company lacked a structured training program for both leaders and team members. Training was more of a “sink or swim” experience, relying on outdated tools like the Ram Academy, which were neither effective nor consistently implemented. This left employees without the necessary guidance to excel in their roles.

Guest Interaction:
Guest interactions were sometimes actively discouraged. For instance, spending a few minutes talking to a table could result in the store leader yelling across the bar to interrupt, often without any valid reason. When guest issues arose—such as incorrect food orders—the standard solution was to remake the dish, but guests were still expected to pay full price, which did not foster goodwill or satisfaction.

Professional Contributions:
Despite efforts to introduce tools and practices from my previous employers that could have enhanced operations, leadership was resistant or extremely slow to implement changes. Even after gaining approval, these tools were inconsistently applied, undermining their effectiveness.

Conclusion:
This was one of the most challenging work environments I have encountered in terms of leadership and organizational structure. The lack of accountability and support made it difficult to feel valued or to contribute meaningfully to the team. For those seeking a supportive culture with strong leadership, this may not be the best fit.

The RAM Restaurant & Brewery is a fast paced bar/restaurant. Everyday servers and bartenders encounter different types of people that come into the RAM to eat and drink. The management and coworkers are very helpful and are always there to give a helping hand. The hardest part of working at the RAM is encountering unsatisfied guests. There are, at times, guests that a server or a manager just cannot make happy once things go wrong. That is the hardest part of the job because it makes the server feel like they failed at the most important part of their job, which is making a positive, memorable experience for the guests. The most enjoyable part of the job are the people I have met throughout the past 5 years of working there. Some of the guests have become regulars and they are the most enjoyable part of the day when they come in to eat and have a drink. It is also enjoyable to meet new guests who have never been to the RAM before. It is important to give them good service so they leave thinking about how nice their experience was. It's also rewarding when you notice that they have started coming back on a regular basis. Some things I've learned from working at the RAM is that you can't please everyone but if you work hard and do your best work it will be recognized and people will appreciate you, your work and what you've done to improve their experience while they have been at the RAM.

The last six months with The Ram I was responsible for opening the bar and providing services to customers, as well as prepping juice/garnishes for the day. I was in charge of making drinks for the restaurant as well as at the bar top. I learned time management, maintaining a strong work-ethic and calm under pressure, patience and multi-tasking. At any given time we have four restaurant managers. They vary in skills and ability to perform, some more qualified than others. While I enjoyed most of my co-workers, we did not hire based off of previous experience, therefore there were a lot of people not capable of performing at a high level for some months. The hardest part of my job is maintaining my calmness while being surrounded by chaos. Our restaurant is located next to the University of Washington and we can have 200 people walk in our door at any given time. The best part of my job is seeing the regulars and meeting new people, as well as being able to go home at night knowing I did an awesome job and provided a memorable experience.

I opened one of the RAM's and had been there for over four years. I started as a busser and worked my way up to an assistant manager so there are opportunities for advancements but at what cost? "Benefits" were hardly benefits, days consisted of 10-12 hours shifts (sometimes longer), 2 consecutive days off were a blessing, and corporate was always breathing down your neck.

On top of the unbalanced combination of work and life... management was poor. I opened the store with General Managers who knew what they were doing and as they got promoted to upper corporate management positions, their shoes were filled with less capable candidates. I experienced unfair treatment of employees. Scrutiny came before appreciation. 

Undeniable and blatant favoritism. One of my former colleagues, who wrote the schedule, gave great money making shifts to her "favorites". I watched servers who had been there since day one, who were never late, those who did everything that was asked of them, given rookie shifts.

Oh, the gossip and bullying at the management level is a different story.

The Ram is a family friendly restaurant and brewery. They focus on local ingredients and home-made drafts to provide high quality food and brews. Sports are a huge component to their business and every restaurant is filled with TVs. The Northgate and University Village Ram are both located in large malls which attract a lot of foot traffic. The holiday and football season brings the most business and things can get a little crazy! It's a high volume environment and a great place to celebrate birthdays, graduations and sporting events. 

Workplace culture is fun and light-hearted, friendly and knowledgeable about food and beverage. Great relations between team members and management-often referred to as the Ramily. The hardest part of the job are the high-volume sporting events where the bar and kitchen get rocked all day long. The most enjoyable part is the satisfaction after a hard days work and knowing that customers enjoyed themselves.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is little room for advancement and no reward or incentive for performance. There are a lot of issues with poor communication and organization, limited training.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I'm often trying to compensate for  poorly organization or complete failure to do even bare minimum work. I'm taken for granted and devalued.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Some people are friendly and welcoming. I appreciate a casual atmosphere that isn't uptight. But I'm constantly fighting against apathy and chaos resulting from poor management. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I often do the work of a supervisor, while getting paid as a host.  In addition to maintaining a balanced seating rotation, I also usually end up bussing and running food, dealing with TVs, some inventory, training newer employees on our software.

Of all of the environments I have had a pleasure of working in, The Ram felt more like family than anything else.  The staff was committed, reliable, and enthusiastic.  I credit this universal attitude to the managers for their great selection in hiring, and their ability to lead by example.  The most difficult part of the job was also the most rewarding - customer service.  

The service industry can be challenging when faced with unpredictable issues that are out of your control (i.e. the kitchen running behind schedule) and the biggest testament to customer service is being able to manage these difficulties while maintaining the customer's happiness.  The staff at The Ram was excellent at ensuring repeated customers, sometimes even forfeiting the server's own money to ensure the customer comes back.  This level of commitment to a restaurant's success rarely comes from a serving staff, thus it was a very uplifting and positive place to work.

Most food industry jobs need to start offering paid time off instead of just employing staff and only recognized when there is a bad review on yelp. Overall the co workers were not all treated equal by specific assistant managers . I wish the company offered help when things happen to employees. There is a program you can pay into every month by choice and if you do then understand you may need help and no one explains how to receive funding and only certain employees get help from the “help a ram” this company was a good company just not for me at the time in my life. Most stay for years happily working and senior staff gets the better shifts or section . The main manager was very forgiving and has a great heart for empathy toward her employees. I dislike they hired a manager with only schooling no actual experience in the industry.

I really enjoyed my time working here. My managers were always nice to me and super flexible with our schedules as long as we were able to find covers which was usually pretty easy with my coworkers being so involved. I’d say the best part about working there was the other employees. We always got along for the most part and not really much drama like I’ve seen at past jobs. Kinda made the long shifts go by faster when I’d have one of my buddies on shift at the same time. Also was nice being able to sit down and have a beer with dinner after a shift and watch a football game in the back game room. There were pool tables and arcade games back there too!

I worked at The Ram during high school. They weren't super flexible with hours, and you never knew when you would be getting off of work. You could start at 2:00 bussing tables, and not get off until 9 or 10pm. That was the most difficult part for me. The waitresses and waiters treated bussers and hosts as if they were their assistants, and they didn't have much respect. I also got frequently blamed for small problems that I didn't even cause. I never got trained to buss tables, I had to figure it out by myself. I got paid $8.00 an hour, and got tips. The tips were generated by the waitresses and waiters, so they weren't really fair. For all I know, I could get a $1 tip share from a waiter after I cleaned their tables for hours on end. Kinda unfair.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cook 19 salaries reported	$20.40 per hour
Cook/dishwasher 8 salaries reported	$19.83 per hour
Store manager 7 salaries reported	$25.13 per hour
Assistant restaurant manager 6 salaries reported	$60,917 per year
Chef manager 6 salaries reported	$27.13 per hour

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