Daniel Goodman
Director of Development
Daniel Goodman’s career in hospitality has spanned everything from line cooking to managing to working quick service to five-star restaurants, and everything in between. Goodman began his hospitality ventures in 2004 when he enrolled in the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business as a Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management major. He immediately began working in restaurants starting at Qdoba Mexican Grill as a line cook (where he picked up his love of Mexican food) then quickly moved up to become a pourer at La Café at Ravinia Festival, a seasonal operation run by Levy Restaurants. In both positions he gained experience in high volume dining as well as working with food and beverage preparations. While Goodman was pursuing his degree, he worked in the kitchen of the University of Denver’s Phipps catering service-plating, expediting, and overseeing the high volume buffet and classical services. Goodman’s next career move was in 2007, just after he graduated, to the front of the house as a manager-in-training at the Five Star, Five Diamond, Four Seasons Resort in Jackson, Wyoming. With several food and beverage outlets including Westbank Grill, a fine dining restaurant, and the Peak, a casual eatery, Goodman managed the floor, supervised shifts, and controlled the general flow of the restaurant. After staying at the Four Seasons for about one year, Goodman was hired as restaurant manager for Headwaters Grill, a public restaurant for the Headwaters Club, a private golf club on the property of Teton Springs in Victor, Idaho. While in this position, he managed daily operations such as staffing, payroll, customer complaints, and programming the POS system, among many other responsibilities. In the winter of 2008, Goodman moved to a new pizzeria concept, Café Ponza, in Jackson, Wyoming where he assisted in planning and launching the restaurant as well as creating and implementing training plans and staff guidelines. After a few months opening Café Ponza, Goodman became dining room manager at Shooting Star, a new high end private golf course in Teton Village in Jackson, Wyoming. In this position, Goodman became efficient in training staff as well as running the daily floor operations. Just before coming to the Mercadito family, Goodman had a short stint as a project consultant with the non-profit, Inspiration Corporation. In this role, he helped homeless and jobless individuals gain working experience by teaching them front of the house restaurant services. In his current role as director of development with Mercadito Restaurants, Goodman is developing employee training manuals, standardizing POS systems, and creating reporting templates for daily operations.
