I'm guessing you're looking at non-prestigious restaurant jobs, most people look for the first attainable job they can find. With that resume you should be looking at the leader restaurants in your area, I say that with a brother who is a restaurant manager and another who is a chef...both are historically-reticent to hire new hires they don't know whose pedigree is "too good" because they have trouble hanging onto them. Nobody wants to hire an Asst. Mgr., Host or Server who could be working someplace they could make more money because eventually they will.
Specifically look and target the big-name, big-ticket restaurants in your town, that's where you're most likely to be able to make a career.
Get a letter of reference from your old long-time boss. She probably knows the big fish in your area and may even be able to refer you to someone for an opening that's not even public yet.
Universities. I used to work in campus programs for a college, part of my job was campus events planning which included coordinating catering with dining services. Let me tell you, they can't get decent applicants for host/coordinator positions for special-event catering. People who have the skills to do the job tend to be people locked into thinking "restaurant" when they need to make a career change. It's nearly always days and early evening. It's front-of-house and mostly client-relations, also talking to the client and the catering manager or chef to determine a menu, operations (that might include linen-service and decor occasionally), smoothing out the ruffled feathers and holding it together when something goes wrong. (Rarely you are also the catering manager.) It pays well, it pays very well in fact and the people who excel at it have tremendous upward mobility...many end up leaving to manage events for conventions and hotels. It's like running a dining room except there's only one seating and you might have 50-500 patrons. (If you want to go back to college, there's also the added benefit that as a university employee many schools offer P/T free tuition.)
= new reply since forum marked as read