Front of House
In restaurant, front of house refers to the operations focused on interacting with guests. Included in the front of house are disciplines such as serving, hosting, bartending, barristaing, bussing, and running food.
Front of house differs from back of house which is responsible for preparing and putting out food, washing dishes, receiving and storing goods, and cleaning.
Front of house organizations are hierarchical and contain different substructures. For example, on the beverage side, you can start out as a beverage apprentice polishing glasses, working the espresso machine as a barrista, running drinks from the bar From there you can work your way up to bartender, sommelier, beverage manager. Larger restaurant groups will even have beverage directors responsible for the beverage programs within the entire organization.
Waiting tables is another sub discipline of the front of house. New hires start as back waiters running food, clearing tables, pouring water, and folding napkins. They move on to becoming servers. Fine dining restaurants will also have captains which are senior waiters and a maitre d'hotel who oversees all of the servers and is responsible for the dining experience of all the guests.
Front of house staff report to a general manager who is responsible for all restaurant operations.
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