Barcats logo
Barcats tagline

Enter below if you are under 18 years of age

I am under 18

Enter below if you are over 18 years of age

I am over 18
Barcats logo Barcats logo mobile
Change site
  • Find Staff
  • Find Jobs
  • Get paycNEW
    • For Venues
    • For Staff
  • Rockstar
  • Community
  • Training
  • Signup
  • Login
  •  Go Back

What is Front of House?

Nov 18, 2021

What is Front of House?

Every successful restaurant needs top-notch front of house staff to ensure that everything is running smoothly, and customers are completely satisfied from the moment they walk through the door to saying farewell.

Front-of-house staff include a number of roles such as a host or hostess, waiters, bartenders, and the general manager — basically anyone who might interact with customers. If you love working with people and customer service this might be the perfect role for you. 

Role of a front-of-house staff 
Front-of-house responsibilities can be split up among a couple different staff, often split between the following key roles and their usual restaurant duties:

The host or hostess is the first front of house restaurant staff member to interact with guests and therefore imparts that all-important first impression. They greet guests and show them to their table. They also take reservations and, if a table is not ready when guests arrive, estimate the wait time. The host or hostess, to the best of their ability, keeps things running on schedule.

Waiters explain and answer any questions about the menu, take food and drink orders, serve customers, and, at the end of the visit, give them their check and process payments.

Bartenders greet customers, take drink orders, and then mix and serve drinks. They might also wash glasses and manage bar inventory with the square's bar point of sale. 

While waiters take customers’ orders, in some restaurants it is the job of the food runner to transport meals from the kitchen to diners. Food runners might also assemble appetisers, refill water glasses, and clear plates when diners are finished eating.

Last but not least we've got glassies or bussies. They're responsible for clearing plates and glasses from customers, wiping down tables to keep them clean and sometimes food running as well. Sometimes glassies can also be called barbacks which means they are responsible for restocking the bar with clean glasses from back of house. 

What skills do I need to be a front of house staff?
These are the desirable skills to have to be a candidate for a Front of House role:

  • Good communication skills
  • Multi-tasking skills
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
  • Experience in handling money
  • Complaint handling

 

To be successful as front of house staff, you should love interacting with new people, like building relationships, being personable, and be able to adapt to a face-pace environment.

 

See here on our website if you’d like to apply for some front-of-house positions! 


Share this
Barcats logo

© Barcats Pty Ltd

Quick links

  • Home
  • Find Jobs
  • Find Staff
  • Get Payc
  • Rockstar
  • Community
  • Training
  • About Us

Help

  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Pricing
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Refunds

Country

  • Australia flag
  • New Zealand flag
  • United Kingdom flag

© Barcats Pty Ltd

Acknowledgements

Australia Australia flag

Barcats operates across Australia in hospitality supporting Australians and their families to be mentally healthy and engaged in their communities.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia Aboriginal flag Australia Aboriginal flag

Barcats would like to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's First People and Traditional Custodians. We value their cultures, identities, and continuing connection to country, waters, kin and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and emerging and are committed to making a positive contribution to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in hospitality by providing services that are welcoming, safe, culturally appropriate and inclusive.

Diversity LGBT flag

Barcats is committed to embracing diversity and eliminating all forms of discrimination in hospitality. Barcats welcomes all people irrespective of ethnicity, lifestyle choice, faith, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Barcats under18 logo

Change Sites?

You are currently on the Barcats over 18s website.
Do you want to change to our under 18s website?

Barcats logo

Change Sites?

You are currently on the Barcats under 18s website.
Do you want to change to our over 18s website?

Please wait.

Join the Barcats community to register for this course

Hold up: it looks like you're under 18, but you're signing up on our over 18s site. Please click here to signup on our under 18s website instead.

Hold up: it looks like you're over 18, but you're signing up on our under 18s site. Please click here to signup on our over 18s website instead.

Login