Manager loves her job, even met husband while working
When it comes to the Butler Texas Roadhouse, service manager Jamie Herman has seen it all.
“At first, it was just I was in college and they asked me to help out,” Herman said. “I thought this was just going to be to get me through college. And then I decided that I actually loved working at the Texas Roadhouse. So, I stuck it out.”
While striving to get her business management degree from Slippery Rock University, Herman, 38, started at the Texas Roadhouse at 101 Clearview Circle in March 2001 as a hostess.
“We (had) just opened the store,” she said. “It was brand-new and always crazy, crazy busy, but it was so much fun. We line-danced and talked to the guests and built our regulars and stayed busy, that's for sure.”
Before the public was welcomed in, Herman said, she and the other hires took two or three weeks of employee training, waiting on each other and role-playing as servers and kitchen staff. They even had a friends and family night, where loved ones got to try the food and test out the Roadhouse before it even unlocked its doors.
Around six months later, Herman was asked to help with hourly managing, for which she had to go through training as a server, bartender, and in the kitchen. With the job, she took over payroll and scheduling.
In her first year working at the restaurant, Herman also met her husband, Adam.“He actually came into the hostess stand and asked for a bag of peanuts after his track meets,” Herman said. “That's actually how we started talking.”The couple has three children — Matthew, 6, Jenna, 4, and Jordan, 2 — and another, Nick, who was 6 years old when he died of pneumonia in 2014.“The whole community actually came together, and we have a memorial outing for him every July,” Herman said. “That's how Adam and I really got through it.”In 2009, she was asked to be a salary manager. She then worked as a service manager at the Texas Roadhouse in Washington, Pa., for eight months. After coming back to the Butler franchise, she was a kitchen manager for three and a half years before settling into her current spot.
On a daily basis, among other responsibilities, she helps bus and seat tables and bag to-go orders.“Making all of the hot prep recipes in the kitchen, trying to make sure they're all ready to go and that you don't run out during your shift is probably the hardest,” she said.Herman enjoys the process of seeing her staff progress just as she did.“My favorite part is probably when we hire a dishwasher or a hostess or a busser and watching them grow within the company ... and become a second family with everybody that works there,” Herman said.Her vast knowledge of other positions comes in handy, especially now, with the restaurant being short-staffed.“I can jump in and help out wherever needed,” she said. “If somebody's struggling in the kitchen, I can go back there. If somebody needs help picking up tables or getting drinks, I can help at the bar.”
Although she would be interested in the managing partner position, Herman can't see herself leaving Butler, where she was born and raised.“With Nick passing away, we aren't willing to move out of Butler,” she said. “All of our kids, right now, they're in sports or extracurricular activities in the area. My parents, my husband's parents, they're both from Butler, so we have babysitters when needed there.”Flexible scheduling and the assistance of 10 other assistant managers allows Herman to spend time with her four pugs — Mogley, Tank, Maui and Bolt — and help her children enjoy hobbies, ranging from flag football to gymnastics. She also enjoys going to baseball games.Usually on the third Monday of each July, closest to Nick's birthday on July 19, the family holds a golf outing at Lake Arthur Golf Club, raising money for the Nick Herman Memorial Fund and gifting it to organizations such his preschool and the Center Township baseball fields.
