Jobs

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Company

V Smiley Preserves makes honey sweetened preserves in Vermont. We love fruit, farmers and big, juicy spoonfuls of flavor. V Smiley Preserves specializes in intricate textured flavors, making no-added pectin preserves and investing in our local foodshed, supporting organic growing practices and making the country’s only nationally available honey sweetened preserves. We have created a new category of preserving, discovering all that is possible with just fruit and honey. The company has taken home multiple Good Food Awards and been featured in New York Times, Boston Globe, Bon Appetit, Seattle Times, Saveur and more.

The kitchen of Minifactory homes both V Smiley Preserves production and Minifactory food operations.

The atmosphere is busy, warm, and full of delicious, beautiful food.

V Smiley Preserves and Minifactory are queer owned/run.

We are hiring the following positions:

HOST/SERVER for MINIFACTORY

On Saturdays & Sundays at Minifactory we serve a range of folks from regulars popping in for cardamom buns and coffee to large group celebrating milestones at the big community table. People take food to go, pick up picnic supplies, hold meetings, meet friends and more. The host directs all this foot traffic, welcoming guests, pointing them in the right direction and taking care of the dining room. This role requires confidence, warmth, leadership, quickness and a love for multi-tasking.

A strong interest in food and drink provides an enormous boost to your work where you’re excited to share new dishes, where ingredients are coming from and how the food is presented while being able to work with customers around food preferences, sensitives and allergies.

Hosts learn how to make coffee and take orders to cover weekday shifts when we run Minifactory without a host. Dishwashing is performed as a team. Staff tend to work a mix of opening and closing shifts to maintain equanimity.

Daytime shifts. 18-24 hours/week. Saturday & Sunday availability required. 2-4 shifts per week depending on how many hours you seek.

$24-27/hr DOE, wage is comprised of a base wage and tips.

COOK for MINIFACTORY

The Role:

Executing a range of breakfast and lunch menu items.

Building a comprehensive grasp of the menu and the ingredients we use. The menus features a mix of signature dishes like savory yogurt and smashed potatoes, then dishes whose guiding structure remains the same but whose prep set and presentation dramatically shift by produce availability like the Big Salad, the meat sandwich and vegetable sandwich, and finally fully rotating items ranging from 2-5 extra dishes depending on business levels, which have us eating brothier, meatier things in the winter and more fruit, flowers and chilled things in the summer.

Working closely with front of house to deliver service. The goal is serving highly consistent, delicious food in a very casual, warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Maintaining Minifactory’s pantry. We produce a weekly collection of items from yogurt to pickles, soups, jams and sauces that form the backbone of the menu. The work is always a mix of learning new things and taking care of old friends.

Minifactory’s unique qualities:

1) We specialize in making accessible food, meals that comfort and fit special diets like grain and gluten free.

2) As a community oriented restaurant, we offer long service hours and a diverse menu from breakfast sammy’s to intricate composed dishes with an emphasis on vegetables and sauces. We source local meat and use it sparingly to keep menu price point at reasonable levels.

3) The kitchen and menu are designed for execution by 1 to 3 cooks depending on time of day and business levels, which range tremendously day to day (Thursdays tend to be quiet) and by time of day (tickets are sparse 8-9:30 AM and then gradually ramp up). For much of the shift, it is a stationless kitchen; you are grilling, sauteing, composing vegetable dishes and sometimes concurrently prepping and/or running food to customers, making this a great role for someone who wants to participate in a big swathe of business from getting face time with customers to working collaboratively and concurrently with a team of 3 prep/line cooks and front of house folks, to execute the day’s service.

4) We run 3 menus over the course of the week. A very simple, garde manger, oven and griddle-based menu for Mondays & Thursdays, an all day more brunch focused menu Fri-Sunday, plus a snack menu after 2 PM Fri-Sun, which is mostly handled by the owner, V Smiley while the daytime kitchen gets flipped and broken down.

5) We run without a dishwasher position with front and back of house sharing washing up duties throughout the day. We have found the restaurant runs more smoothly, equitably and collaboratively by sharing this work with each other.

6) We are produce specialists with several tons of fruit and vegetables from local farms flowing through Minifactory and V Smiley Preserves - you will learn about our local food shed, meet farmers and producers, and work with unusual ingredients like mulberries, quince, specialty citrus, edible flowers and what vegetable/fruit varieties work for what applications.

Particulars

Daytime shifts. 20-36 hours/week.

Saturday & Sunday availability required.

3-5 shifts per week depending on how many hours you seek.

This cook position can be put together and worked in a variety of ways whether a mix of prep of line work days or just shorter, fewer line work days, we build the position around a great fit, something that works well for you and keeps Minifactory humming.

$24-29/hr DOE, wage is comprised of a base wage and tips.

To apply for these positions:

☑︎scroll to the bottom of page ☑︎fill out the application form and submit ☑︎after submitting, email a note introducing yourself, plus your resume to honeyjam@vsmileypreserves.com ☑︎in the subject line of email, place the title of the position for which you are applying.

⬇︎ start here ⬇︎

JOB APPLICATION

detailed, thoughtful answers are super helpful in this process. thank you for taking the time!

NEXT, send your note introducing yourself + resume to honeyjam@vsmileypreserves.com with position title(s) in the subject line.

We’ll follow up if we have questions. Thank you very much.