Company description

Zusammen is a queer wine bar at 2322 Massachusetts Ave in North Cambridge, one block from our retail shop, Momma's Grocery + Wine. The room is small, low-lit, carpeted + intimate enough to hold a conversation. We pour natural wine, cider, beer + a short list of cocktails, alongside a small snack menu. We host tastings, workshops + community events. Zusammen is German for "together." Queerness, openness + slowed-down patient, genuine service are our goals.

Our Hospitality Model

Zusammen practices authentic hospitality, it is the core of the job + the thing you will spend the most time teaching. If you apply for this job + you have not been into Zusammen, please come as a guest before you apply so you can see our hospitality model firsthand + ensure you are a believer.

• We use our real voices + have real conversations. We don’t create barriers between staff + the customer.
• We sit with tables, our service is unhurried + attentive.
• Every interaction is a conversation, nobody is handed a list + left alone. We ask, we listen, we guide. A guest should leave having tried something they wouldn't have picked themselves + understanding why they liked it.
• We actively try to get guests to drink bottles, knowing it is less profitable than other menu items. We want our guests to sit in community with the others at their table.
• We read the table. A first date, a solo guest with a book + a group of six all want different things from Zusammen.
• The room is part of the service. Lighting, music volume, glassware, temperature, sightlines, the state of the restroom — all of it is the service team's responsibility.
• You'll train, model + hold this standard nightly + build the written materials that make it teachable rather than intuitive.

The Bar Manager owns the guest experience, the wine program + the operations of the room. You are responsible for training the team to our hospitality standard, buying wine within our natural wine parameters, planning + booking our private + ticketed events (on site + off site), + managing all inventory + maintenance. You'll be in close contact with the owner daily + will mentor the team by supporting individual wine education, excellent service training, teaching efficiency + time management + the art of hosting.

You are responsible for exceeding health code + responsible-service standards, being a positive leader + managing issues in the room as they arise. Upholding a professional, safe, happy work environment for our team + our guests is the topmost priority.

Qualities you should have + want to strengthen:

• A commitment or defined interest in natural wine + in locally + regionally grown food + drink
• Pride in caring for people through hospitality + an appetite for teaching it
• Interest in food policy, advocacy, farming, sustainability or waste-reduction
• Passion for sustainable local economies + building/reusing rather than buying new things
  • There’s a passage that’s meaningful to us from Living the Good Life by the Nearings about keeping an enterprise “to the barest minimum the number of implements, tools, gadgets, and machines which we might buy from the assembly lines of big business”. We think about this scrappiness not as being cheap, but as being consistent with our values of minimizing waste + the least dependence on inputs from outside our region or from corporate giants that aren’t rooted in community.
• Building on or furthering your professional wine understanding through formal education or self-guided education
• Comfort in communicating with vendors, distributors + service providers
• A can-do attitude: help out at our company events, cover team shifts, bring genuine positive energy to every day
• Solutions based thinking
• Ability to take a project from start to finish
• Ability to delegate tasks
• Ability to demonstrate systems + train staff until proficient
• Be an active listener
• Composure at volume: you stay calm + fun when the room is full
• Reliable, supportive, compassionate, patient + curious
• You've thought about gender, queerness, justice, community + actions to make the world better
• Must be able to work weekends, holidays + evenings; this is a nights + weekends role
• Able to lift 50 pounds + be on your feet for extended period of time

Job description

Compensation

• Position Type: Full-time, Exempt
• Approximate Hours per Week: 40+
• Approximate Annualized Rate: ~$77,000
• This rate includes $62,000 base + approx. $15,000 in tips + event gratuity. Tips are earned when you are the only bartender on service (Federal + State law). The manager will work Sunday nights solo.
• Approximate Annualized Benefits Value: $15,000
• Start Date: Fall 2026
• Application Deadline: September 15, 2026

Experience you should have:

• You have managed a bar, wine bar, beverage program, or similar hospitality environment
• Experience in staff education + training, particularly service standards + wine service
• Buying experience, or a demonstrated command of natural wine + a plan for growing into the buying role
• Managed vendor + distributor relationships
• Event planning or event service experience
• Can work independently + set timelines for daily, weekly + quarterly

Job duties

Service + Team Development

• Be on site for every service. You are not expected to close each night, but you should see each service through.
• Update the menu for each service + communicate changes to the staff in pre-service meeting
• Bar shifts as needed, dependent on seasonality + staffing
• Manage a staff of ~5 direct reports
• Build, revisit + implement training materials: service standards, wine education, cocktail specs, POS, opening + closing
• Schedule staff (schedule is made seasonally)
• Organize + run bimonthly staff meetings
• Maintain + manage necessary certifications for the staff + the bar; be a manager of record with the City of Cambridge

Wine Buying + Beverage Program

• In time, be the wine buyer, which will be highly collaborative with the owner at the outset + will open up as you build the relationship + the list.
• Buy within our parameters. They are strict + non-negotiable:
  • Agriculture first. Minimum practicing organic. How the fruit was farmed is the first question, not the last. If we can't verify it, we don't pour it.
  • Soulful wines that show their fermentation. Native yeasts, low sulfur, minimal intervention in the cellar.
  • Decentering France + Italy. We are actively building a list that looks elsewhere: the Northeast, Central + Eastern Europe, Iberia, the Balkans, South America, wherever growers are doing this work. Classic regions earn their place here rather than getting it by default.
  • You can (+ should) read more about our definition of natural wine here.
• Taste with distributors + importers; manage the appointment calendar
• Cost, price + track margin across wine, beer, cider, spirits + N/A
• Coordinate with Momma's Grocery on shared vendors, cross-programming + inventory where it makes sense, for example: pour/highlight Momma’s Grocery wine club wines on Zusammen menu.
• Attend off-site industry tastings regularly
• You will collaborate with the owner on the snack menu + ensure that it is executed to the highest level + properly executed

Events, Private + Ticketed

• Manage private event booking end to end: inquiry, proposal, contract, deposit, event order, staffing, execution + follow-up
• Plan + book ticketed programming: tastings, winemaker visits, workshops, classes + community events
• Be the main contact for offsite events (currently, 6-8 events/year)
• Set, in close communication with the owner, pricing, minimums + policies; manage the events calendar against normal service
• Manage ticketing + guest communication; coordinate promotion with the owner
• Staff, brief + lead the team through events; debrief afterward
• Track event Profit + Losses + report on it

Inventory + Maintenance

• Manage all inventory management: receiving, pricing, weekly + monthly counts, ordering
• Use the existing system of Airtable receiving + importing into Square
• Inventory rotation: open-bottle management, freshness, seasonal list changes, new products
• Enter incoming invoices into our system + review with the team on missing or damaged items; communicate with vendors daily as needed
• Manage loss, waste + variance; investigate + systemize fixes
• Order supplies + smallwares: glassware, paper goods, chems + cleaning supplies, wearable parts
• Organize the schedule + be accountable for maintenance tasks: refrigeration + compressor cleaning, dish machine + chemicals, HVAC service coordination
• Troubleshoot: equipment failure doesn't happen on a schedule, so you need to be ready to deal with these issues.
• Bank deposits

Benefits Include:

• 10% - 50% discount at Zusammen (party size dependent)
• 35% discount at Momma’s Grocery
• 2 weeks paid vacation a year / Accrued PTO
• 1 week paid sick leave
• $3,000 a year for travel to: conferences, winemaker partners
• Paid wine education
• 401K with employer match (up to 5%)
• HRA (Qualified Small Employer Health Care Reimbursement Arrangement)
• Pre-tax MBTA pass

Other Info:

• You must have wine knowledge + a plan for continued learning + you are required to participate in off-site industry tastings, in-shop tastings + wine sales on a regular basis.
• You must attend all bimonthly staff wide meetings.
• You must attend all extracurricular team building activities.
• Joyful, loving, fun atmosphere, we prioritize a non-toxic, open-communication work atmosphere + we are very serious about that boundary.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $75,000 - $100,000

Application instructions

Deadline

September 15, 2026