Can Celebrity restaurateur
Danny Meyer Live up to the
Hype?
In
his new book Setting the Table,
Danny Meyer sets himself up
as the king of hospitality.
In the real world, does he
practice what he preaches?
Marisa D'Vari finds out ...
Rather
daring, don’t you think,
for a restaurateur to write
a book titled Setting The
Table: The Transforming Power
of Hospitality in Business?
Especially
since no matter a restaurateur’s
personal ideals and goals,
he or she depend on chefs
and servers to communicate
these ideals to the guests.
Not only must the restaurateur
walk the talk, the staff must
willingly do so as well.
Danny
Meyer has been in business
over twenty years, growing
his original Union Square
Café into a brand (Union
Square Hospitality Group)
now including the celebrated
Eleven Madison Park, The Modern,
Grammercy Park, and many others.
In his new book, Meyer attempts
to chronicle his not-quite
rags to riches story of how
he succeeded in the restaurant
business by listening to people
and putting the customer first.
Skeptical
by nature and well-versed
in the world of PR, I’d
expected to read the typical
froth about how the little
things matter. And in print
articles and interviews related
to the book, I’ve read
shaggy dog stories about how
Meyer’s service-obsessed
waiters jumped cabs to airports
to return a forgotten purse
to a diner, or scrambled to
retrieve a chilling bottle
of signature champagne from
a patron’s refrigerator
when he (isn’t it almost
always a ‘he?’)
forgot to bring it to the
restaurant for an anniversary
diner.
Leery
of tales of servers so heroic
each seemed equipped with
a knight’s armor and
charging white horse, I wondered
why Meyer would resort to
such extremes when in the
real world I’ve always
found his service staff (at
the Modern, Union Square,
Grammercy Park, and Eleven
Madison Park) always sincerely
friendly, well-trained, and
extra-ordinarily well-versed
in wine. And requests for
sauces on the side and other
When Harry Met Sally-style
deviations have always been
delivered exactly as ordered.
Then,
without design, Meyer’s
message was put to the test
when a friend entertaining
important business clients
and myself at the Modern (the
pricey dining room, not the
bar room) discovered after
the first of many already
ordered courses that his parties’
theater tickets for the sold-out
hit musical Jersey Boys
was for 7:00 PM, not 8:00
PM.
Despite
the fact it was a busy Thursday
night (in Manhattan, the busiest
night of the week) with every
table booked, arrangements
were made for us to return
to our wines and already-fired
courses following the performance.
Now
given Meyer’s proclaimed
customer-first heroics, you
may be wondering: Did Danny
Meyer send a long stretch
limo to take you all to the
theater (about six blocks
away) in the pouring rain?
Did he send a bottle of Dom
Perignon to enjoy during Intermission?
(no)
This
experience occurred a few
months before I read the book,
but the incident did reinforce
the fact that Meyer has very
successfully articulated his
message to his staff, and
they internalized it quite
well. Not because they “had”
to (otherwise I’d sense
it in their attitude), but
apparently because they admired
Meyer’s leadership enough
to believe in his message
and his mission.
Instead
of hubris, Meyer never shies
away from admitting his own
mistakes as a young restaurateur
in his book. He gives a no-holds-barred
account of his struggles and
successes, both on a personal
and professional level. Quite
a bit of raw personal emotion
in what is touted as a business
leadership book, and this
is exactly the ingredient
that keeps it more real and
gripping than the recycled,
canned information you find
in most books on customer
service.
Meyer
is also generous in crediting
his mentors, especially Robert
Chadderdon, an importer of
French wines, in both his
marketing and wine list education.
Though Meyer grew up in a
self-described ‘euro-centric’
household and developed an
early interest in wine and
food, nothing in his background
could prepare him for the
territory he was to conquer
in NYC circa 1985, a time
when Union Square Park was
not the leafy, clean, upscale
place to buy farm fresh produce
it is today, and the park
outside what is now the exclusive
Eleven Madison Park was rundown
and ignored.
As
economic conditions in NYC
improved and created a growing
audience for his restaurants,
Meyer’s growing fleet
of restaurants gained in popularity
and his focus on customer
service deepened. Meyer admits
he was afraid of instilling
a “Stepford Wives”
type approach to hospitality
in his staff, similar to the
repetitive “bye-bye”
chirp of seemingly robotic
flight attendants as passengers
depart a plane. Instead, he
empowered his servers to give
great service by letting their
personalities shine through
in terms of their approach
to guests.
Michael
Porter, a professor at Harvard
Business School, has written:
“Danny Meyer’s marvelous
book is not about restaurants,
but about how to really learn
a business and create a distinctive
strategy,” and this is
true. If your objective is
to please customers, and train
staff so that they like you,
respect you, and are comfortable
following your formula, this
is the book for you.
This
is also a “must read”
book if you’re interested
about how to open a restaurant.
Yet perhaps, above and beyond
anything else, it is a book
that warns you to pick your
advisers carefully.
Meyer
writes that in the early 2000s
he was driving past what would
be the glamorous Time Warner
Center, with its Mandarin
Oriental hotel, CNN studios,
luxury apartments, shops,
and five-star restaurants
wit his then eight-year-old
daughter, Hallie. At the time,
it was just a dug-out hole,
but Meyer painted the picture
of what it would one day be
and asked: “What would
you think if Daddy opened
a restaurant there?”
Hallie
burst into tears and said,
“I never want you to
have a restaurant where people
are going there for some other
reason than to go to your
restaurant. People go to your
restaurants because they want
to be at your restaurant.”
Well
said, Hallie. If nothing else,
Danny Meyer, sounds like you
really do pick your advisors
well.
(Originally posted in Blogcritics)
Harvard Business Review
New
Jersey Online
Clevelandland.com
New
Orleans Time Picayune
Alabama
Newspaper Syndicate
Michigan
Newspaper Syndicate
Massachusttes
Newspaper Syndicate
Pennsylvannia
News Syndicate
Topix.Net
|
