Director of Food & Hospitality

About T&J Travel Centers

At T&J Travel Centers, we're redefining what a travel center can be: a place where guests experience genuine hospitality, not just convenience. We combine craveable food, spotless facilities, and friendly local service that feels like home.

We're a fast-growing, family-run company built on strong values and servant leadership. We're looking for a Director of Food & Hospitality who lives craveable food, leads humbly, stays hungry, and helps every kitchen deliver the same great meal every shift.

What you'll do

You'll be the leader of everything we cook and serve: responsible for food quality, speed, consistency across every kitchen, the grab-and-go program, and the Kitchen Managers who run it all day to day.

Your success will be measured by how well you:

      Hold every kitchen to the same standard for quality, portion and ticket time, and review the numbers weekly

      Write the spec for every menu item and build the brand book a new store can open from

      Own kitchen training: the curriculum, station certification, and follow-up to make sure it sticks

      Build and coach a bench of Kitchen Managers who are trained and ready to step up

      Launch and run the grab-and-go deli at every store, with fresh product in the case from open to close

      Protect the menu: new items earn their place on speed and quality, and come off if they slip

What you bring

      Five or more years in multi-unit food operations, at director or area manager level

      Experience running a kitchen that cooks from raw product

      Recipe, SOP and food cost systems you have built yourself

      A record of holding quality and speed standards across several stores at once

Nice to have

      Culinary degree or formal culinary education

      Experience as a head chef, including menu design at a busy fast casual

      Bilingual, English and Spanish. This would be a big advantage in this role

      Experience building teams

      A record of humble leadership

What you can expect

      A family-style culture built on respect, teamwork, and humility

      Real ownership: Craveable Food is one of our six core values, and you're accountable for it

      Competitive salary, performance bonuses, and recognition for excellence

      A hands-on job in kitchens: long stretches standing and walking, and lifting up to 50 pounds

OUR VALUES

Run Lean: Waste nothing. We live or die by pennies.

Care Deeply: Respect the guest in front of you and the teammate beside you.

Clean Relentlessly: If you see it, you own it. The restroom, the parking lot, the whole store.

Craveable Food: Make it worth driving across town for. Every single time.

Lead Humbly: Go first. No job is beneath us.

Stay Hungry: Good today isn't good enough tomorrow. Ask for the harder job.