Daniel Meyer is a New York City restaurateur and CEO, and founder of the Union Square Hospitality Group. Meyer has contributed a lot to the growth of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) and making it an internationally admired restaurant.
He owns many restaurants and catering services. Among many, Daniel Meyer has also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shake Shack, a goumet restaurant that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and milkshakes under the Union Square Hospitality Group.
With a net worth of $400, this restaurateur and businessman graduated from Trinity College and then worked as Cook County Field Director in Chicago. Having learned cooking in Europe, Meyer opened the Union Square Café in 1985 at 27 years old. After that, he founded many restaurants, including the Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke, and Jazz Standard, Terrace 5, Café 2, The Modern at the MoMA, Maialino, Untitled at The Whitney, and Shake Shack.
He has also written four books, was awarded 25 James Beard Foundation Awards and the USHG, won the Bon Appetit Best Restaurateur in America Award, and the Readers Digest Best Restaurateur Award. Throughout Meyer's 34-year career, he has revolutionized the restaurant industry, Below are some of the best Danny Meyer Quotes.
Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple, and it's that hard.
Businesses are professional. But if you can make your employees feel at home, then there is nothing better than that. Just like in life, if you make your employees feel better about themselves, there is no better way to prosper your business. It is not difficult to get it, but it is difficult to implement this way of thinking.
Make new mistakes every day. Don't waste time repeating the old ones.
Past mistakes help you not to repeat them in the future. They make you cautious about the future. When you keep repeating your past mistakes, that indicates that you haven't learned anything from them. Make mistakes, learn from them, and thrive to become a better person.
For judges of character, there is no such thing as the color gray.
People who are quick to judge do not care for the whole story. For them, either something is right or wrong; they always think about extremes. They have no regard for considering tough situations that lead to tough decisions. For them, everything is black or white, and they don't believe in any middle ground or the colour grey.
Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It's all about hiring the right people.
Qualities like hospitality, politeness, and righteousness cannot be taught. If these qualities are required at a workplace, there is no point in hiring people and then teaching them these skills. It is better to hire people who already have these skills rather than hiring them and then teaching them.
Continue reading some more Danny Meyer Quotes...
Life is a series of waves to be embraced and overcome.
Life is a transition of events, situations, and decisions that we need to overcome. These situations, which occur in waves, be it good or bad, need to be embraced and handled properly. Everything that comes our way do it for a reason, which you may not understand now. But the future will hold answers. Hence, when life throws something at you, it is better to go with it.
A great restaurant is one that just makes you feel like you're not sure whether you went out or you came home and confuses you. If it can do both of those things at the same time, you're hooked.
Any restaurant that can make their customers at home and still give them the experience of eating out has achieved the highest level of appreciation. Offering a gourmet and homely experience together is the ultimate challenge for any restaurant.
People use restaurants to do business, to do politics, to socialize.
Restaurants are multi-purpose places. While one may think restaurants are only used as an outdoor eating experience. But restaurants help people socialize, make business deals, help make political ties with people. Overall, eating is just an excuse to remove the awkwardness while doing these things.
The great thing about capitalism is that it's a system that works.
Even though capitalism is subjected to as being an unfair system and something that favours the rich. But it is forgotten that capitalism is the only system that works. It is a practical system. Unlike socialism and communism, capitalism actually works.
Few more Danny Meyer Quotes...
What you can do is present existing flavors in a fresh way, in a fresh context.
Flavours available in the world are limited. What you can do with the existing flavours is what makes you unique as a restaurant. Taking old traditional flavour and serving a fresh dish with fresh flavours is what a restraint should thrive to do.
Use your time well. Everyone gets time equally. It doesn't matter how much money you make.
Spend your time with your loved ones, learning something, or getting new experiences. Everyone gets the same time; how you spend yours is what matters. The money you make doesn't matter as long as you spend your time living rather than just minting money.
When I was young, I had no choice as to what I was eating.
As a child, we don't get a say in what is served. But as we grow up, our taste becomes refined it improves. We get the liberty to choose our taste, to choose the type of cuisine we are inclined to. Hence, as we grow up, it is important to try different things and experiment with new dishes rather than stick to the same old mundane dishes.
'Fine casual' means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.
Fine dining restaurants are typically higher-end and fancier restaurants. They provide a formal restaurant. Whereas casual restaurants, as the name suggests, are more or less just casual. Casual restaurant mostly comprises of just simple takeaway meals or small diners and provide a very homely experience. 'Fine casual' is a term coined by Danny which suggests a beautiful combination of the two. Fine dining provides a gourmet and homely experience at the same time catering to all kinds of customers and is catching the eye of many people at this date
A delicious meal cooked by a colleague for many others nourishes not only the body but also the soul
Meals made by loved ones are always more delicious than provided by any fancy restaurant. A loved one makes a dish with love, whereas a chef might just treat the dish as a job to finish.
Some more Danny Meyer Quotes...
Be aware of textural elements throughout a party, like silverware, stemware, and linens. But the biggest element is metaphorical: it's your own touch. How are you making people feel?
However fancy you try to make an event, until and unless you have pure intentions, all the fancy materialistic things have no value. The intention with which you serve food is more important than the silverware you serve it in.
Restaurants with small courses that give the customer choices, and that don't obligate them to spend a fortune, are going to do very well.
Restaurants that offer custom dishes rather than just serving what they want are bound to become successful. They give their customers the freedom to choose their own servings. So even if they don't like the dish, it's on them, and they won't blame the establishment. Also, offering people good food with less price can never go wrong.
I couldn't sit in a chair in an office all day.
Danny Meyer was never an office type of guy. He couldn't spend his day sitting on a chair all day staring at a screen. He always knew he was made to do something different. And he worked on that instinct to become a success.
At my restaurants, we have training drills before every meal. We talk about what we did yesterday that was great and what we can improve today.
Any restaurant or even any establishment, for that matter, that is ready to take feedback and work on it will surely go a long way. To have the scope to improve without considering as only ourselves as the best is the key to success. To train your employees and get better day by day is how you go long.
Comfort food is absolutely moving upscale.
Comfort food is something that has a sentimental value attached to it. Its nostalgic feeling attracts people to itself. When people are drifting from their families for various reasons, food is something that can keep them connected to their roots and provide them comfort. Hence comfort food is in demand nowadays.
I adore going to a very, very fancy restaurant - as long as the spirit is genuine, like it's their pleasure to welcome you.
Restaurants that try to be more homely and have a genuine spirit are always attractive. It doesn't matter how grand or fancy the place, as long as the food is of good quality, the servers are authentic, and the place overall gives a good vibe. Even a fancy place can be authentic.
Good service means never having to ask for anything.
If a restaurant is providing good service, it means the customers never have to ask for anything. Before even asking if the server knows that their customer needs something, that is exactly what good service is.
