Whilst he's best known for starting Shake Shack, Danny Meyer has decades of experience running successful, beloved restaurants. He is now CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and is building a legacy as one of the most iconic restaurateurs of our time. Here are three lessons from Danny's book 'Setting the Table' on how he built his business.
1 - Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel.
Central to his business philosophy, is this idea of hospitality.
Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel.
He points out that whilst service is a monologue, hospitality is a dialogue.
Every small decision from how the guests were greeted at the door, to how a waiter responds to small signs of impatience from a customer were points of information that could be used to create a meaningful connection. The aim was to create a sense of "shared ownership", where a guest talked about a restaurant as if it were theirs. The insight is the guest isn't just sharing the culinary experience, they're sharing the experience of feeling important and loved.
At its best, a restaurant should not let guests leave without feeling as though they’ve been satisfyingly hugged.
2 - The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.
Success lies not in the elimination of problems, but in the art of creative, profitable problem-solving.
Danny tells the story of a couple who drove 250 miles to eat at one of the restaurants but found it closed for a private event. The couple was furious and stormed out. The way Danny's team turned this situation around was emblematic of their approach to mistakes.
They were gracious, first acknowledging and apologizing for their mistake. Subsequently, they found a table at one of their nearby restaurants for the couple - The maitre d' walked the couple to the nearby restaurant and made sure they were looked after. For the couple, dinner was on the house that night, and the team left them with a gift certificate for a future dinner at the first restaurant, and a handwritten note. Would you know it, the couple became monthly regulars at the restaurant.
Every interaction, good or bad, was an opportunity to create a memorable experience for the right reasons. Every mistake was a growth opportunity.
3 - Be obsessive, sweat the details.
What struck me about Danny was his obsession with every tiny part of the restaurant experience. He sweats the details, and his memoir seeps with passion for his craft of delivering an amazing dining experience. I'll leave you with this quote - Imagine if you were competing with someone with this level of attention to detail.
I’m constantly on the lookout for local idiosyncrasies, ways of eating that exist nowhere else. And I’m always energized by a hunt for the best version of any local specialty. ...... During one thirty-six-hour road trip through North Carolina, I tasted fourteen variations on chopped pork, each defined by subtle and dramatic differences in texture, the degree and type of smoke used, the amount of tomato or vinegar in the sauce, how much heat was applied to the meat, as well as how much or how little crackling got chopped up and tossed in.