Why Danny Meyer Still Matters

I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to hear Danny Meyer speak in Denver, and I wanted to share with you the four points that I really took away from the conversation that he had with Bobby Stuckey. I also want to share a really cool experience that happened afterwards, which by far has become one of my top experiences of my life. Let's get started. Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, where we coach independent multi-unit restaurant operators to build systems that drive profitability and reclaim time so they can scale with confidence and spend their time and energy where they want to, not where they have to. I'm your host, Kristen Marvin, restaurant coach and author of Multi-unit Mastery. If you are an independent restaurant owner managing multiple locations, you know the chaos that comes with growth. Inconsistent execution across your restaurants. Managers who won't take ownership. Constantly answering questions your team should already know the answers to. You're stuck in your current role when you want to be playing a bigger strategic role as you scale. You don't have the right leaders in place or you keep losing them. And you're not sure how to find great people and actually keep them around. We work with passionate independent restaurant owners who found success with their first few locations and are ready to scale strategically. Our clients aren't looking to just survive expansion. They want to thrive through it. They're committed to developing strong leaders and creating exceptional guest experiences. Through the independent restaurant framework that we teach in Multi-Unit Mastery, we coach independent restaurant groups to move from chaos to confidence by focusing on three pillars people, process, and profit. You can grab a gifted copy of the book at irfbook.com. On this show, we bring you real coaching conversations, leadership strategies, and the frameworks that you need to lead like a CEO instead of operating like a worn-out manager. And here's the thing: coaching has changed our clients' businesses and can change yours too. If you've never experienced what it's like to have someone in your corner who actually gets the restaurant world, we'd love to connect. We offer one-on-one and group coaching. Head to kristinmarvin.com slash contact for a complimentary coaching session and let's talk about what's possible for your restaurant group. Danny Meyer has been someone who's had an incredible impact on my career, although he didn't know it until just recently. Twenty years ago, I was working at the Broadmoor and they were getting ready to open a fine dining restaurant, and they asked me to be a part of the management team. With this new restaurant came a GM who worked for Union Square Cafe. Now, Setting the Table was my go-to book in the early days of my hospitality career. There weren't a lot of leadership resources out there that I knew of at the time. And I really, really resonated with Danny's book, Setting the Table. He was from Missouri. I'm from Missouri. I loved his story of moving to New York. I'd always wanted to move to New York and how he was able to scrounge up a million dollars in investment and start this restaurant. I thought at the time, when I'm in, you know, in my early 20s, a million dollars was a lot of money. And to see what he was able to build and how relatable it was was really something that I connected with. And so setting the table really became my hospitality guide. Um, if I needed some inspiration at the end of the shift, I'd go open it up. I would often talk about it to the team. But having the opportunity to work for somebody who worked in Danny's circle at Union Square Cafe was an absolute dream of mine. So insert Michael Sesnick, who was the GM of the restaurant then called Summit at the Broadmoor, I think it's changed names now, but it was part of the new convention center. So this restaurant was going to be magical on all levels. We'd spent six million dollars um on just on design. From we hired an international designer named Adam Tahani. Uh we had a million-dollar glass wine turret right behind the bar that was the focal point of the restaurant when you walked in. And the turret spun all during service, and it was all beautifully, you know, temperature controlled, of course, and organized. And we were able to take guests on a tour through the wine tour at before and after uh their dining experience, which was just uh absolutely incredible. Just something cool and some, it sounds like Vegas, you know, something I I haven't really seen in Denver before, or in Colorado before, excuse me. And we had um we'd hired two master mixologists out of New York to craft this beautiful one-of-a-kind cocktail program. And we had, you know, a ton of smaliers since the the Broadmoor is a five-star, five diamond resort. And so, of course, the wine list was magical. Um, we'd hired a Michelin star chef. So I was just in a kid in a candy store in my early 20s learning about culture and kind of traveling the world through food and wine and cocktails. It was absolutely magical. That experience for me was so impactful because I really got to see the book Setting the Table come to life. So many of the concepts in the book were ones that Michael brought in and infused into service. And they all just made sense. They all seemed like something that you would absolutely want to do from yes, studying the reservations of the guests that were coming in before uh they even came in so we could figure out how we could connect with them to something as simple as what we call the something for nothing. So if a guest sat down at a table and they were having a conversation or asking the server about which one of these appetizers should we get, they ordered one and we sent them the other one. Uh, same thing with dessert, just any little moments like this that we could um we could really use to make a difference. We were always collecting dots. So there were so many wonderful moments within that book that really opened my eyes to the magic of what hospitality is. And I've gone back and read it a few times and they still they still resonate. And it's funny because a lot of the younger uh restaurant operators that I coach, I will often ask them if they've read Setting the Table, and they say they haven't, or some don't know, don't know who Danny Meyer is. So anyway, I had the opportunity to hear Danny speak um just a couple weeks ago, and he's do-I think he's doing some sort of tour or he's celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Setting the Table, which is just really special, and I can't believe it's been 20 years. But I had never been able to tell Danny the story that I just told you until a couple weeks ago. And I wanted to share some of the common or some of the not common, some of the themes that Danny had talked about that really, really resonated with me. He was uh in town as part of an Eat Denver and um YPO Young Professional Organization Network, and he spoke at DU and he was joined by uh Bobby Stuckey, and Bobby did a QA with him, and there were just so many points that really, really resonated, and it's cool to see him kind of bring this blend of the concepts that were in the book 20 years ago, how they still relate today, and to hear him tell the story of his start, knowing how much of an amazing global success he is now was just so reassuring, especially coming from a you know business owner standpoint, and um just inspirational. So I wanted to share them with you today. Um, the first interesting point that I loved was uh Danny talking about scaling for the right reasons. He talked a lot about, and he talks about this in the book too. It took him 10 years to go from Union Square Cafe to Gramercy Tavern. And a lot of that was because Danny struggled with some limiting beliefs about his dad and watching his dad become an entrepreneur and failing on, you know, failing over and over and over again. He's very open and vulnerable about that, and really, you know, that that limiting belief caused him to contribute growth to failure. And so that fear really held him back. And what finally moved him was that he saw the opportunity that growth and scaling the restaurants would create for his team and not himself. And that is just the most beautiful reason to scale. I think there are, you know, I talked to a lot of people that say, I want to build this brand, uh, you know, grow it as fast as I can and turn around and sell it. And then there are those people that say, you know what, I'm passionate about this. I love what I'm doing. We really want to make an impact in the lives of our guests, in the lives of our community, and for our team. And I love working with people that share that mindset in terms of scalability. The second point that he made that was really powerful was this journey of excellence that he really strives for with his teams, not perfection. He was very clear that that's not something to be, you know, that can be achieved, and I agree with that on so many levels. But he talks about he and his team always being on the journey. Before we dive deeper into today's topic, I want to share something that's been a game changer for the restaurant owners I work with. You know how we've been talking about building stronger foundations for your restaurant? Well, I've taken everything I teach my coaching clients about creating core values, mission statements, and long-term vision, and I've turned it into three hands-on online courses. These aren't your typical watch and forget courses. Each one walks you through using AI tools like ChatGPT to create the foundational elements every successful restaurant needs. We're talking about core values that actually guide your hiring decisions, mission statements your team can rally behind, and a three-year vision that turns your growth from reactive to strategic. The best part is each course is only$49, or you can grab all three for$99. That's less than what most restaurants spend on a single food delivery order, but it'll give you the clarity to make better decisions for years to come. You can check them out at kristinmarvin.com slash courses. You can also text me directly in the show notes. There's a link at the top of the show if you want a special promo code to save an additional amount of money on any of the courses, including the bundle. Now let's get back to our conversation. He talks about how perfection is a trap. And we all know that bad shifts will happen in restaurants, but I do talk to some operators that just absolutely beat themselves up when bad shifts happen because they want and they expect that the shifts are going to be consistent and well-oiled every single day, and that's just not achievable. He talked about three questions that he poses of the team. Three, he asked them three things that they're proud of, and he asked them three things that they can do better. And I really love this because that balances everything. It really protects the culture around growth. And now I've been somebody who has absolutely been guilty in my career of always focusing on the problems or looking for the things that that have the greatest opportunity to be fixed and not slowing down and recognizing the really great moments with the team. So I love that he's framing this as always being on a journey of excellence. You never really, you know, he talked about not opening restaurants just to get the Michelin star or the James Beard Award, but just this constant goal of striving for excellence. So just really love that. The third point was him talking about the behavior that you tolerate within your restaurant becomes your culture. And again, can't agree with this enough. There, we had an HR director that we worked for for a very short amount of time. And she said this to us one time in a meeting that the behavior that you tolerate becomes your culture. And it that was probably 10 years ago, but it really that really, really stuck out with me. Um, I think Bobby had asked the question of Danny what's one behavior that you, or somebody maybe in the audience, what's one behavior that you that you wouldn't tolerate? And Danny immediately shifted to lack of generosity. And he tells some stories of guest experiences that just fell a little short of generosity, where someone was worried about food costs, and so they boxed up a salmon that wasn't cooked all the way instead of just fixing the salmon for the guest. Um, so stinginess, right? Um, can really, really poison a team. We've all seen this. The poor performer who slowly resets the bar for everyone in the restaurant, that mediocre is now the standard, right? So, really, really important to think about. I think for yourself, you know, anybody that's listening to this, what behavior are you tolerating in your restaurant right now? And what is the impact on the culture? You may have no idea what the impact of the culture is, you may not see it, you may not, the staff may not be telling you what the impact is, but I guarantee you that you're recognizing some of those behaviors. The fourth point really, really hit home for me too, which was you know, we of course we were talking about how difficult it is in the restaurant business right now and how it's not getting any easier, rising costs, so many people that are in new to the industry, that institutional knowledge is gone in a lot of areas, and it's putting a lot of pressure on hiring, on training, on leadership and leadership development. And it's difficult to grow that way when you have so many barriers against you of building a bench of talent. And so Danny really acknowledged that and reminded us that yes, it's hard for restaurant operators, but the world that we're living in right now is also really, really hard for the guests, and it's incredibly hard for the employees. And I I I didn't think about that until he said that, and it was such an eye-opening moment for me, and just really brought back all those times when I was on the floor and we would have an upset guest or something that didn't go right, and we would always talk about those guests as having like a big sign of in front of them that says, like, I need love. Um, the reminder that we never truly know what the guests' agenda is when they come in, or what's happened before they've come into the restaurant, or what's going to happen after they leave the restaurant. It's all just about really being present with them and doing anything that you can to make the experience wonderful for them. And the same thing for the employees. I wish that we put as much emphasis as we do on the guest experience, on the employee experience, because we all know that taking care of our people first leads to a great guest experience. And Danny's always had this um dialed in. He knows his employees are first and foremost, number one, and then he moves on to guests and the vendors in the community. The coolest part of this day for me was um I I had gone gone to this, of course, gone to hear Danny speak, but I went with the intention and the hope of signing my first book for him, the The Hospitality Leaders Roadmap, in which in chapter seven, I wrote about the story that I just told you about in the beginning of this episode, and I named that chapter Danny Meyer. I jumped up as quick as I possibly could. There were 400 people in the in the audience, and I beelined it right down to Danny because I wasn't sure if he was going to hang around for a second or if he was going to be swept away off to his next event. And so I ran down there as fast as I could. There were a couple people ahead of me that kind of had his attention. I was kind of behind his back and, you know, move motioning and moving around so I could get in front of him. Um, and he was so gracious. I was able to shake his hand and introduce myself and tell him, you know, hey, 20 years ago, your book changed my life and really set me on this journey. And he was so gracious, he laughed. We talked about the Broadmoor for a second. He had uh he said that there was a menu item at one of the cafes there that he loved so much. And uh when I presented him a gift and just said, I'd love to give the give you a gift, you know, of my book. Um he was just like genuinely excited and surprised about that. So I can only imagine the experience this man has had all over the world and all the wonderful people he's met. And uh it was just a really, really special moment. So I I had somebody ask me a couple months ago, you think Danny's really who Danny comes off to be in the book? Um, and he absolutely is. He's just a genuine, kind-hearted human being that lives and breathes hospitality. And I think that there are operators out there that do that and show up really, really well in their restaurants. And I think there's some that talk about it that don't really live it. And Danny absolutely lives it. So thank you so much for listening to this episode. We'll see you next week.