Berenjak
Client-Berenjak
A Persian kebab house opening in Riyadh, and a full brigade to find before the first service.
Staff members
(25 members)
Waiters
Bartenders
Baristas
Barbacks
Food Runners
CDP
Commis Chef
Kitchen Porters
Project Manager
Project Duration
4 months
Location
Riyadh | Via Riyadh
Berenjak opened its Riyadh room with a charcoal grill at the centre of the dining floor, which puts the kitchen in full view of every table and leaves no margin on who stands behind it.
Melas ran the recruitment end to end — sourcing, screening, trade tests and onboarding — for the kitchen brigade and the front of house, from four months out to the week of opening.
.avif)
Recruiting for an open kitchen is not filling seats. It is finding the people who will still be there in a year.
.avif)
.avif)
What changed
We ran trade tests on the actual grill rather than on paper, and put every front-of-house candidate through a tasting before the second interview. Forty-one roles were filled, all before the soft opening.
Twelve months on, eighty-eight per cent of the original team is still in place — including the full grill section.
.avif)
