The Heart of Hospitality

In this chapter, the speaker reflects on their early experiences as a tour guide in Italy and the foundational lessons on hospitality learned at Union Square Cafe. They emphasize the importance of creating genuine connections with customers, contrasting personal experiences with the impersonal nature of chain restaurants. The discussion also explores emotional intelligence and effective leadership as vital components in building successful hospitality-driven businesses.

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My guest today is Danny Meyer, the founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which compromises some of the most acclaimed restaurants in New York like Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café. He’s also the founder and chairman of Shake Shack, which began in New York City but is now a publicly traded company with hundreds of locations worldwide. Our conversation focuses on how great hospitality leads to a great business, regardless of what sector its in. We discuss why hospitality is the starting point for Danny’s business philosophy, why first impressions matter, Danny’s concept of ABCD - always be connecting dots, how to scale hospitality, and how to build a business with essentialism and soul. The other day, when my young son went ice skating and fell a lot he said to me “well you learn from your mistake so you try to make as many of them as you can.” You’ll hear Danny say something powerfully similar late in the conversation. It’s a lovely thought, then, that I found out my son, my firstborn, was a boy in one of Danny’s restaurants, in a reveal orchestrated by his incredible team. I really hope you enjoy our conversation.

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Show Notes

(3:41) – (First question) – His experience as a tour guide in Italy

(8:17) – Why hospitality is the center of business focus

(8:19) – Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

(11:50) – Early lessons at creating an environment of hospitality

(15:17) - His strategy ABCD and learning from a trout fisherman relate and relate to hospitality

(20:45) – Scaling hospitality

(24:56) – What kind of people make a hospitality business work

(29:34) – How to be an effective leader

(33:00) – Handling mistakes well in the role of hospitality