FOH Lead – The Royal Oak, Laxfield
Pay: £12.71–£15.00 per hour, depending on experience
We’re looking for an experienced FOH Lead to help shape the next chapter of The Royal Oak in Laxfield.
The Oak is a real, characterful, slightly rough-and-ready village pub with a loyal local crowd, now shaping itself into a more confident place for food, drink and hospitality.
This role would suit someone who already has strong pub front-of-house experience and is confident across both bar and floor. You’ll be a steady, capable presence on shift: greeting people as they arrive, looking after customers, serving drinks, supporting food service, running plates, encouraging customers towards lunch, dinner, roasts and specials and helping the pub feel warm, convivial and well looked after.
The Oak already has people who know the pub, the regulars and the old rhythms of the place. What we need now is someone who can bring a more confident front-of-house standard into the room: making the food offer visible, helping customers feel properly welcomed, keeping service moving and showing others what a food-led pub can feel like in practice.
This is not an entry-level role. We need someone who can bring experience, steadiness and initiative from day one. You’ll need to be comfortable being relied on during service, reading the room, looking at what needs doing and supporting others. This is the kind of FOH role where judgement, confidence and emotional steadiness matter as much as speed behind the bar.
Experience changing barrels would be a real advantage, though the key requirement is strong pub FOH experience and confidence across both bar and floor.
You will help with
Greeting customers as they arrive and making the pub feel welcoming
Serving behind the bar confidently, including drinks, till use and general bar standards
Supporting table service and food service as the pub becomes more food-led
Running food, clearing tables and keeping service flowing
Encouraging customers towards food, specials, roasts, puddings, coffees and additional drinks in a natural, warm way
Helping less experienced team members understand what good FOH service looks like
Keeping the bar, floor and customer areas clean, organised and ready for service
Noticing what needs doing during quieter periods
Supporting opening, closing and shift routines
Helping create a more confident, consistent front-of-house feel
This role will be ideally suited if you
Have solid previous experience in a pub, bar or hospitality setting
Are confident working behind the bar and on the floor
Understand the difference between simply serving someone and genuinely looking after them
Can work with regulars, families, diners and passing customers with warmth and confidence
Are happy working in a characterful, slightly rough-and-ready village pub environment
Can bring better habits and standards into a team without making a drama of it
Are practical, reliable and able to use your initiative
Can support less experienced staff by role modelling rather than lecturing
Ideally have experience opening, closing, running shifts or changing barrels
Pay and hours
Pay is £12.71–£15.00 per hour, depending on experience and responsibility.
The top end of the range is for someone with strong pub FOH experience who can confidently support or lead shifts, work across bar and floor, help steady the team and contribute to the pub’s development as a more food-led village pub.
Pay: £12.71-£15.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Employee assistance programme
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking
Application question(s):
- Please describe a pub or bar role where you were trusted to run service without close supervision. What kind of venue was it, what were your responsibilities and what would the team have relied on you for?
- What do you do differently when serving in a food-led pub compared with a mainly wet-led pub?
Work Location: In person
