Part-Time Wine Shop & Wine Café Assistant / Key Holder
Wine & Such, Lee / Hither Green
Wine & Such is a neighbourhood wine shop and wine café in South East London. We focus on organic, biodynamic, low-intervention and natural wines, alongside traditional ciders, vermouths, sherries, refill wines, local products, snacks and the odd very good thing we couldn’t resist putting on the shelves.
Our whole thing is simple: it’s about the wine, not the label.
We’re not interested in making wine feel intimidating, exclusive or painfully serious. We organise our wines by how people actually shop, think and drink. The Zesty White. The Crowd-Pleasing Red. The Chillable Red. The “I Don’t Know What I Want But I Know I Want Something Good” bottle. That sort of thing.
We are looking for a part-time person to join the team in a role that is much more than standing behind a till.
Wine & Such is a small team, and right now the owner works every shift. Once trained, you will become a key holder and be trusted to run the shop when Steph is not there. That means doing everything on your own: opening, closing, serving customers, pouring drinks, making cocktails, preparing food, keeping the shop floor running, handling the till, restocking, answering questions, and keeping the whole place feeling like Wine & Such.
This is a very “wear multiple hats” kind of job. We are a wine shop, but we also operate as a busy wine café. Customers might be browsing the shelves, asking for bottle recommendations, ordering glasses of wine, choosing cocktails, sitting in for snacks, collecting online orders, or asking what to bring to a dinner party, often all at the same time.
Some shifts are calm and chatty. Others are full-on. You need to be able to move between proper wine advice, friendly service, pouring drinks, making food, cleaning tables, running the till and keeping an eye on the shop floor without falling apart or disappearing into a cupboard.
Hours
To begin with, the regular shifts will be:
Friday evenings
Saturdays into the evening
Current opening hours are:
Tuesday to Friday: 2pm to 8pm
Saturday: 11am to 7pm
Once you are fully trained and comfortable, the hours may become a little more flexible. There may occasionally be a need for you to run the shop on your own at other times during the week.
There may also be additional hours around tastings, events, holidays or busy periods.
This is a part-time role and would suit someone with some flexibility in their other commitments.
What we’re looking for
First and foremost, we need someone warm, reliable and genuinely interested in people.
Customers come to Wine & Such because they want help choosing wine. They might know exactly what they like, or they might only know they want “something juicy but not too heavy” or “a white that feels expensive but isn’t.” Your job is to make that feel easy, friendly and enjoyable.
You do not need to know every grape, region and producer from day one, but you do need to have a real interest in wine. We can teach you our range, our style and how we talk about wine, but the curiosity needs to already be there. Wine thirst, if you will.
We are especially looking for someone who is self-motivated. The kind of person who reads about things just because they want to understand them better. Someone who tastes a wine and wants to know where it came from, how it was made, what makes it different, and how to explain it to a customer without sounding like a textbook.
Experience with wine, hospitality or retail would be ideal. A great attitude, strong common sense and a genuine desire to learn are just as important.
A chance to shape the shop
Because we are a small independent business, this role comes with a real chance to have input.
As you get settled in, there will be opportunities to help shape parts of the shop, including:
- Suggesting wines for the shelves
- Helping choose what gets opened for tasting
- Contributing to social media posts
- Supporting tastings and events
- Helping with music for the shop and events
- Sharing ideas for displays, themes, offers and customer experience
We want someone who cares enough to have opinions, notice what customers are responding to, and help make the shop better.
Key responsibilities
You will be expected to:
- Welcome customers warmly and make people feel comfortable in the shop
- Help customers choose wines based on taste, occasion, budget and mood
- Learn the Wine & Such range and be able to talk confidently about our wines
- Pour wines, make cocktails and look after sit-in customers
- Prepare and serve simple food and snacks
- Open and close the shop once trained
- Run the shop independently when Steph is not there
- Manage the shop floor during busy periods
- Use the till and ordering systems accurately
- Keep the shop clean, tidy and inviting throughout the shift
- Restock shelves and maintain visual merchandising standards
- Accept, check and put away deliveries
- Help with stock counts and stock accuracy
- Pack online or delivery orders where needed
- Support tastings, events and busy seasonal periods
- Be willing to muck in with whatever needs doing that day
This is an active role. You should expect to be on your feet for most of the shift, often around 90% of the time.
Knowledge and skills
You should have:
- A genuine interest in wine, especially organic, natural and low-intervention wines
- Some wine knowledge or wine experience, either through work, study or personal interest
- Friendly, natural customer service
- Confidence talking to customers without being pushy
- Good common sense and the ability to problem-solve
- The ability to stay calm when several things are happening at once
- Reliability and punctuality
- Attention to detail, especially around stock, orders and the till
- A positive, practical attitude
- Self-motivation and curiosity
- Willingness to learn and keep improving your wine knowledge
- Comfort working independently once trained
- Hospitality, retail or wine shop experience preferred, but not essential
You must be over the legal drinking age, as the role involves selling and serving alcohol.
What you’ll get
- Staff discount
- On-the-job wine training
- Supplier tastings and training opportunities
- Experience across wine retail, wine café service and events
- The opportunity to become a trusted key holder in a growing neighbourhood business
- A real chance to contribute ideas and help shape the shop, from wines on the shelf to tastings, social media and music
- Potential opportunities for further wine training, including WSET support where appropriate
This is also a genuinely fun job if you like wine and people. You get to spend your shifts talking to customers who actually want to hear your recommendations, tasting and learning about new wines, and building the kind of knowledge that stays useful for life.
The person who will do well here
You’ll probably enjoy this role if you like wine, people and small independent businesses. You do need to be comfortable with the fact that small shops are hands-on. There is no “that’s not my job” version of this role.
The right person will be friendly, curious, dependable, practical and happy to get stuck in. Someone who wants to learn more about wine, not just work around it. Someone who can make customers feel looked after, keep the shop running smoothly, and care about the little details that make Wine & Such feel like Wine & Such.
Pay: £13.50-£15.00 per hour
Expected hours: 8.0 – 15.0 per week
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Employee discount
- Store discount
Application question(s):
- Do you have experience running a shop, café, bar or similar business on your own? If yes, what were you responsible for?
- Wine & Such focuses on organic, biodynamic, natural and low-intervention wines. What interests you about this kind of wine, if anything?
- Most shifts will be Friday evenings and Saturdays into early evening. Are you reliably available for these times?
- What is your favourite wine, grape, region or style at the moment, and why do you like it?
- Most shifts will be Friday evenings and Saturdays into the evening. Are you reliably available for these times?
- This role involves serving customers, recommending wines, pouring drinks, making simple food, restocking shelves, cleaning tables and running the till, sometimes all at once. How do you feel about that kind of shift?
- This role involves stock accuracy, till accuracy, online orders, customer tabs, food prep and closing procedures. Tell us about a time when attention to detail mattered in a previous job. What did you do to make sure things were correct?
Work Location: In person
