SETTING THE TABLE

"My appreciation of the power of hospitality and my desire to harness it have been the greatest contributors to whatever success my restaurants and business have had."

— Danny Meyer, Setting the Table

"Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel," writes restauranteur Danny Meyer in his Introduction of Setting the Table. "It's that simple, and it's that hard." Meyer spells out his recipes for cooking those tasty feelings into his 20+ lunch haunts, happy hour bars, fine dining taverns, Central Park hot dog stands, and late-night pizza joints via thirteen easily-consumable chapters. 

From his early twenties spent studying the dining rooms, kitchens, and markets of Europe to his insatiable appetite for discovering and improving on local specialities in his NYC apartment, Meyer's life-long journey to realize his visions of perennial dining experiences is packed with inspiration for any business venture. I found his later chapters on navigating press and customer reviews, as well as building teams through discerning hiring practices especially illuminating. Meyers' nine traits for successful managers and seven core business teams are imbued with the essence of his mantra of "enlightened hospitality." 

Union Square Cafe, Meyer's first restaurant

"Hospitality is the foundation of my business philosophy. Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any business transaction. Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side...Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you." But what does this look like in practice? Meyer's feast of examples include the time a couple celebrated their anniversary, but realized they had left a champagne bottle in their freezer. Minutes away from exploding, Meyers' manager arranged to have one of his waiters go take it out and leave a dessert. And the time a reservation was lost in the new tech system's glitches, causing the manager to catch up to the angry couple three blocks away and personally escort them to one of Meyers' other restaurants to enjoy a free meal. But some of the most informative examples oh enlightened hospitality are ones done behind the scenes: 

• Ripping up floorboards and stuffing fabric beneath tables to better absorb sound so that patrons can hold conversations more easily
• Embracing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software despite the glitches and traditionalists to track idiosyncrasies of guests in order to better serve their needs
• Optimizing menu boxes with lighting, prices, and non-head-scratchy ingredients lists
• Thank you cards for first-time diners with survey information and a coupon for their next visit
• Training reservationists to "plant like seeds in like gardens," in order to increase networking value for patrons at lunch and dinners, but still maintain privacy

I can't wait to begin applying these principles and set the table. [JG]

WHO IS DANNY MEYER?

Danny Meyer is the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group. His restaurants and their chefs have earned twenty-one James Beard Awards, and are perennially ranked among NYC's favorite food spots in the Zagat survey. You can explore and make reservations at his twenty restaurants here. I'm especially eager to try Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, and Porchlight. 
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"The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled."

— Danny Meyer, Setting the Table
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