Photograph courtesy of Union Square Hospitality Group, copyright 2010 Ellen Silverman; Illustration by Sam Wiley
Danny Meyer and his grandmother were lunching at Schneithorst’s. “This was so long ago that a relatively new innovation was putting ketchup inside of a foil packet,” he says. “For some very unfortunate reason, I thought it was a good idea to pound the packet.”
The red goo flew and landed smack-dab in his grandmother’s “just coiffed, silver-blue hair.” Immediately, members of Schneithorst’s staff hustled over and offered to redo the do. Although his grandmother demurred, Meyer was impressed.
Decades later, in 1985, when Meyer opened Union Square Café, he ensured that his staff made customers feel welcome and any problems were immediately resolved so first-timers would become regulars. He credits St. Louis—and restaurants like Schneithorst’s, Giovanni’s, Busch’s Grove, and even Shakey’s Pizza Parlor—for teaching him the importance of what he calls the “hospitality quotient.”
Today, the Sun King of New York City restaurants has an empire, Union Square Hospitality Group, with more than 2,000 employees and nearly 30 different establishments, including Gramercy Tavern; the four-star Eleven Madison Park; Blue Smoke; the Shake Shack chain; The Modern; Maialino; Café 2 and Terrace Five at the Museum of Modern Art; Public Fare café in Central Park; concession stands at Citi Field, Nationals Park, and Saratoga Race Course; Untitled at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and by the end of the year, North End Grill in Battery City Park. When asked whether his success stems from that hospitality dictum, he answers with an unequivocal yes.
For Meyer, HQ starts with the reservationist answering the phone and continues through the entire meal, right on to thank-you notes. The approach has been so successful that Meyer now has staff teaching it. “It is a learning business that we set up last year,” he says. “We are working with companies that are the best in the world at what they do but who now want to be the best in the world in how they make their stakeholders feel.”
Meyer grew up in Ladue, graduated from John Burroughs School and Trinity College, and has pretty much lived on the East Coast since. Will he ever expand to his hometown? The most likely export would be a Shake Shack, he says; already, the burger chain’s in Miami Beach, Dubai, and Kuwait City. The first Shake Shack opened in Madison Square Park, which was, at the time, fringy. A deal was negotiated whereby a portion of the rent that USHG paid the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation would go to the park’s upkeep. Meyer credits the genesis of the idea to Share Our Strength founder Billy Shore.
“It is basically saying, ‘What if you open a for-profit business in a way that in addition to being successful, it also created a community wealth that helped all boats rise with the tide within that particular area?’” Meyer asks. “That was our goal. The nicer, the safer, the more beautiful the park, the more people come to Shake Shack, and the more people come to Shake Shack, the nicer and the more beautiful and safer the park remains. It’s a completely self-sustaining model.”
In his book Setting the Table, Meyer sums it up: “It shows you can do well by doing good.”
