Zitat des Tages von Danny Meyer:
I just think the best way for me to be greedy is long-term greedy.
My history has been to grow the roots as deeply as you can before going on to the next thing. That's why it took 10 years to go from Union Square Cafe to Gramercy Tavern, and another 10 years to go from Blue Smoke's first location to its second, and five to go from Shake Shack 1 to Shake Shack 2.
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?
I gasp for air if I don't get to breathe Italian air once a year.
If you develop a dialogue with me and take an interest in me, I'll want to give you the business. It's human nature.
I never get sick on airplanes, which is incredible. You're basically in a flying petri dish.
I don't get to cook in my own restaurant.
A delicious meal cooked by a colleague for many others nourishes not only the body but also the soul.
People use restaurants to do business, to do politics, to socialize.
At the base level, a burger is a piece of meat and a bun with something on it. It's simple but it seems to make a lot of people happy.
Restaurants and chefs have become followed by such a broad swath of the public, in a way that used to be reserved for sports stars, movie stars, and theater actors. Restaurants are in the firmament of today's common culture.
Use your time well. Everyone gets time equally. It doesn't matter how much money you make.
If you're constantly making business decisions on behalf of your investors first, ultimately you're going to wear down your other stakeholders. It's going to be potentially hurtful for your employees and your customers and the community you do business with.
In an age when so many groups are rolling out restaurants faster than your local baker makes donuts, my goal is that each restaurant feels hand-crafted. That they have their own soul.
I feel like not knowing Joe Torre is a hole in my New York experience.
You cannot open a major New York restaurant today and not be aware that showbiz will play a role.
'Fine casual' means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.
I think that Shake Shack wouldn't exist had it not been for Twitter. I don't think you would have gotten a hundred New Yorkers to stand in line for an hour if they couldn't have made their time really productive and organized snowball fights, ordered free hot chocolate, and, you know, Instagrammed photos.
You can't let challenges argue you out of doing what you know is the right thing.
Museums are like sports stadiums, hotels and hospitals: they are in the category of captive-audience dining.
When I was young, I had no choice as to what I was eating.
In one respect, it's easier to open a restaurant in New York because you get more media attention than anywhere else. Almost everyone will try a new place once, irrespective of the reviews, because it's a spectator sport.
If someone said, 'You've got to eat your next two meals at American fast-food restaurants,' I would do one meal at Chipotle and one meal at Popeyes fried chicken.
The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.
Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.
What you can do is present existing flavors in a fresh way, in a fresh context.
When push comes to shove, baseball is one of my favorite things in the world.
Every restaurant needs to have a point of view.
A cocktail done right can really show your guests that you care.
During one of his uncannily well-timed impromptu visits to my restaurant, Union Square Cafe, Pat Cetta taught me how to manage people. Pat was the owner of a storied New York City steakhouse called Sparks, and by that time, he was an old pro at running a fine restaurant.
It's always imperative to improve and to remain dynamic - or you'll become lunch, as opposed to serving it.
I run in London, in San Francisco - any city that's got a waterfront or park.
You wouldn't have the same art on the walls at every restaurant or the same waiter uniforms. Neither should you have the same service style at every restaurant.
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.
I don't think there's going to be sustainable demand for restaurants that force you to spend hours there.
London has become one of the great world destinations for someone who likes food.
