Danny Meyer

"As my company’s leader, I have certainly learned to be decisive with an appropriate sense of urgency, but I always prefer to make my decisions after first building consensus among various colleagues, whose unique vantage points give me further confidence to move forward. This process can be lengthy, but so long as the spirit of any decision is consistent with what I’d want, bringing others’ views to the table allows us to move forward with a more fully realized plan supported by those who are responsible for its execution. Our decision-making about whether or not…"

"I will throw myself into a new venture only when certain criteria are met: I am passionate about the subject matter (i.e., early American folk antiques, modern art, jazz, barbecue). I know I will derive some combination of challenge, satisfaction, and pleasure from the venture. It presents meaningful opportunities for professional growth for my colleagues and me. The new business will add something to the dialogue in a specific context, such as luxury dining (Gramercy Tavern), museum dining (The Modern, Cafe 2, and Terrace 5 at the Museum of Modern Art), Indian dining (Tabla), barbecue (Blue Smoke), or burgers and frozen custard (Shake Shack). Financial projections indicate the possibility of sufficient profit and returns on our investment to warrant the risk we’re undertaking."

"Robert Chadderdon Selections."

"I’ve learned that an effective way to achieve all those goals with a new chef (and to get to know the essence of the person) is to return with him to his roots. It was a moving experience to travel with Gabriel in Alsace and to see his homeland through his eyes and his palate. Of course the region holds special meaning for me too; my parents had lived in the neighboring Lorraine for the first two years of their marriage. Alsace-Lorraine has historically been a melting pot, with French, German, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish cultures living together through war and hardship, producing a resilient people and excellent, soul-satisfying food."

"First, any new restaurant would have to be as excellent within its niche as Union Square Cafe. (In my mind, the success of Union Square Cafe had been a fluke, and I was fairly certain I’d never have a hit like that again.) Second, the opening of the new restaurant could in no way compromise or diminish the excellence of Union Square Cafe. (Restaurant sequels can diminish the original, perhaps because the management’s focus and capacity may be spread too thin.) Third, I would open another restaurant only when I was sure that I would also achieve more time for myself and Audrey. (That seemed unlikely, as I was already working up to fourteen hours a day.) At this point in our lives, Audrey and I were"

"Hospitality cannot flow from a monologue. I instruct my staff members to figure out whatever it takes to make the guests feel and understand that we are in their corner. I don’t tell the staff precisely what to do or say in every scenario, though I do have some pet peeves that I don’t ever want to hear in our dining rooms. I cringe when a waiter asks, “How is everything?” That’s an empty question that will get an empty response. Also, I can’t stand the use of we to mean you, as in, “How are we doing so far?” I abhor the question, “Are you still working on the lamb?” If the guest has been working on the lamb, it probably wasn’t very tender or very good in the first place."

"I realize that I don’t have to do this kind of thing, but there is simply no point for me—or anyone on my staff—to work hard every day for the purpose of offering guests an average experience. I want to hear: “We love your restaurant, we adore the food, but your people are what we treasure most about being here.” That’s the reaction that makes me most proud and tells me we’re succeeding on all levels. I encourage each manager to take ten minutes a day to make three gestures that exceed expectations and take a special interest in our guests. That translates into 1,000 such gestures every year, multiplied by over 100 outstanding managers throughout our restaurants. For any business owner, that can add up to a lot of repeat business."

"My ultimate mission for any new restaurant is always to begin with a subject I love, zero in on what I enjoy most about it, and then envision a new context for it."

"I have continued to view people who work for me as volunteers. It isn’t that they’ve agreed to work without pay. “I’m aware that you’re all here, on the most basic level, to pay the rent,” I tell new hires. “Just as you need a job, I need people to take orders accurately, and to cook wonderful food.” Then I remind them that if they’re as talented at what they do as we believe they are, they could have gotten a job at any of 200 other very good restaurants for the same pay. “You could all be doing what you do anywhere else,” I say. “But you chose to be with us. You have volunteered to be on our team, and we owe it to you to provide you with much more than just a paycheck in return. We want you to feel certain you have made a wise choice in joining our company.”"

"once again, the timing wasn’t right for us. With a year to go before opening at MoMA, we were entirely focused on that project and lacked the additional organizational capacity we’d need to succeed at this new opportunity. But by exploring it, we did realize that the time might come someday for us to venture into the airport food business. The risk in saying “not yet” is that an opportunity could be taken by some other, more prepared company."

"We spent our time driving through farmland, strolling around small towns and villages, and studying dozens of menus—their shape, size, categories, formats, and even font styles. We talked about what kind of uniforms we’d want our staff to wear. We checked out pottery and furniture shops and discussed décor. We visited dozens of pastry, cheese, and butcher shops. It was easy to see how Gabriel’s very personal style of cooking had been nurtured in and around the farmhouses of his extended family. He told me, for instance, all about the classic Alsatian baeckoffe, a pork, veal, or beef stew made by marinating the meat in local white wines (Riesling, Edelzwicker, and Sylvaner), and then baking it with layers of potatoes (sliced an eighth of an inch thin), carrots, leeks, onions, parsley, pepper, and tomatoes on top."

"“We have fun taking service seriously,” he said. “And as for perfection, we just hide our mistakes better than anyone else!”"

"There are going to be all kinds of nice shops, a grocery store, a gym, and they’re going to have four or five other great restaurants there.” With that, Hallie burst into tears. “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,” she said."

"I want the kind of people on my team who naturally radiate warmth, friendliness, happiness, and kindness. It feels genuinely good to be around them. There’s an upbeat feeling, a twinkle in the eye, a dazzling sparkle from within. I want to employ people I’d otherwise choose to spend time with outside work. Many people spend a large percentage of their waking hours at work. From a selfish standpoint alone, if that’s your choice, it pays to…"

"The restaurants and other businesses I have opened in New York City—Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2, and Terrace 5 (our cafés for visitors within the Museum of Modern Art), plus Hudson Yards Catering—were all conceived and are all driven by a passion to add something new and compelling to what I call a dialogue between what already exists and what could be."

"Some people thought I was crazy, but for me, hospitality must be enlightened: we must care for our own staff first. Interestingly, after our self-imposed ban on cigarettes, business improved, and the restaurant grew more popular than ever."

"4. Long-Term View of Success If you have a philosophy that puts employees first, guests second, community third, suppliers fourth, and investors fifth, you implicitly have a long-term perspective—at least as long as your lease. We create restaurants for the long haul, and we make decisions based on that commitment. Every time I’m faced with a decision that involves an investment of money, I analyze the potential return by asking, “Will this yield today dollars, tomorrow dollars, or never dollars?” Only the third alternative—never dollars—is unattractive to me."

"The greatest source of entrepreneurial inspiration for me has always been my rich storehouse of personal memories and interests, from which I draw ideas for new business ventures. For instance, I have always loved sports—and I continue to follow every game of my hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals. It has occurred to me from time to time that there might be something to add to the quality and kinds of food available at sporting events, a category which has certainly improved since my youth, but which still has a long way to go. There must be an enormous number of people who love both sports and good…"

"Having experienced my father’s bankruptcies, and knowing something about how many new restaurants went belly-up, I was soberly aware that failure was a real possibility."

"Our gastronomic adventure was my version of an off-site management meeting designed to help me get to know, motivate, and build bonds with a new colleague. I love to encourage a pastry chef or a cook or an executive chef to remember the first time he or she ever successfully cooked chocolate chip cookies or brownies (or, in Gabriel’s case, tarte flambée)."

"Why do we care for our stakeholders in this particular order? The interests of our own employees must be placed directly ahead of those of our guests because the only way we can consistently earn raves, win repeat business, and develop bonds of loyalty with our guests is first to ensure that our own team members feel jazzed about coming to work. Being jazzed is a combination of feeling motivated, enthusiastic, confident, proud, and at peace with the choice to work on our team. I place the interests of our investors fifth, but not because I don’t want to earn a lot of money. On the contrary, I staunchly believe that standing conventional business priorities on their head ultimately leads to even greater, more enduring financial success. And, just as important, it’s the kind of success that adds tangible value to the lives of a wide range of stakeholders. As business or organizational logic, enlightened hospitality can be applied far beyond the restaurant industry."

"Part of the adventure of dining out, for many people, is venturing to new surroundings. A dynamic neighborhood would bestow a freshness that could rub off on the restaurant. As for the lease, my dad, now a restaurateur himself—he had opened a French bistro, Chez Louis, in St. Louis—had consistently pointed out that if my restaurant were to fail, the lease itself would be my only tangible asset."

"One role I decided not to play myself was chef. Though I had fantasized early on about leading the kitchen (and in fact had seen being a chef as my only legitimate avenue into the business), it increasingly dawned on me that as much as I loved to cook, I was much more suited to becoming a restaurant generalist. My culinary education in Europe had provided the necessary foundation with which to communicate clearly about food with chefs in their own language."

"Second, Bryan wrote that the sensitive design made Union Square Cafe feel like “part of the neighborhood, not something imposed on it.” Reading his words helped me understand that what I was doing intuitively was actually working. I have made that an intentional strategy for every single restaurant I’ve opened since."

"“Please don’t get caught up in the aura of the museum,” he said. “We selected you because of what we know of you. Too often, people try too hard with us and end up not doing their best work.” I heard his advice, but for me it was impossible not to try hard, when I was part of creating a restaurant whose thirty-five foot windows overlook the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller sculpture garden."

"They also know me well enough to call me on the carpet when that is warranted—always doing so out of a sense of support, and with respect. I’ve taken great care to surround myself with highly capable people of integrity, each of whom brings something different to the table, and often something I am lacking. “What are you thinking?…"

"I ask managers (whose intuition and judgment we trust, or they wouldn’t be managers) to pose themselves three fundamental hypothetical situations when they are hiring. Situation 1: Think of someone you know well (a spouse, best friend, parent, sibling) who has an uncanny gift for judging character. If this person were on a jury, he or she could take one look at the defendant and almost always render a correct verdict. For me that someone is my wife, Audrey, who is eerily adept at reading character and integrity and who, in a flash, can almost always tell if what you see is what you get. So the first check is to imagine that you have invited the prospective employee to your home for dinner with your judge of character. The three of you discuss many things over a two-hour dinner. When the prospect leaves and the door closes behind him or her, what will be the first thing your character judge says? “What the hell are you thinking?” Or, “Hire that person immediately!” For judges of character, there is no such thing as the color gray. Situation 2: Imagine your keenest rival in business—if you’re the Yankees, say, then it’s the Red Sox. Then imagine that the day you make a job offer to a prospect, he or she calls you back and says, “Thanks, but I just got a great offer from the Red Sox and I’m taking the job with them.” Is your immediate reaction “Shit, we blew it!” Or, “Whew, we’ve dodged a bullet!” Ask yourself."

"(To this day, getting an assignable lease is the first piece of advice I give any new restaurateur.)"

"My craving for the adventures of travel, food, and wine is what first compelled me to do what I do. In fact, like so many other entrepreneurs I’ve met, I’m not even sure I had much of a choice: a career in the restaurant business was going to tap me on the shoulder even if I hadn’t found it first."

"Strong technical skills are usually the reason most people get their first or second promotion. But the higher you climb the ladder of power, the less technical skills count and the more significant emotional skills become. Employees are expert boss-watchers who instinctively focus their “binoculars” on the bosses with the most power. If they see weaknesses in character traits and ideals, they can and often do strive to put out the boss’s fire in a hurry. Sometimes we have terminated managers not because I decided unilaterally to fire them, but because over time the staff came to a collective decision that they were lacking in some of these character ideals."

"In my obsession for big numbers, I’d created hideous logjams. But it was oddly exciting to manufacture challenges and then surmount them. (In fact, that was and continues to be a pattern in the way I work.) I drew up new reservation sheets, adjusted the seating chart, reassigned waiters’ “stations,” and sharpened my calculations of the turn time for each table—all with the goal of maximizing volume without compromising our ability to deliver excellence."

"If ever we were to launch a restaurant outside the familiar precinct in which we had done business for twenty years, MoMA felt like the ideal place. The museum is viewed in the world of art precisely as I dreamed our restaurants might be in the world of fine dining: an institution that endures and is at once forward-looking, sensibly grounded in tradition, and relevant today."

"6. Trust It’s extremely difficult for a manager to motivate people if he or she tends not to trust others. Similarly, it’s extremely difficult for employees to trust or want to follow the lead of a manager who doesn’t trust them. It’s hard to do your best for an extended period of time when your primary motivation is to avoid disapproval. We look for people who are naturally trusting. True, it’s necessary for a manager to have a modicum of healthy cynicism in order to identify team members who act out of self-interest or who work the system to their advantage. But it is never useful to cause paranoia in everybody else by having a mind-set of mistrust and fear."

"Our senior vice president of operations, Richard Coraine, is my secret weapon for assessing whether we can actually execute a plan. He knows what it takes to make things work at the level of excellence expected from us. Our culinary senior vice president, Michael Romano, who excels at carefully figuring out the specifics of any recipe, helps to stop a half-baked plan, contributes essential know-how to…"

"I DON’T REGRET ANY of the “no” decisions we have made, but to this day I have occasional misgivings about passing up an opportunity to create a new restaurant in the Metropolis Cafe space next door to Union Square Cafe in the early 1990s. Even though I am entirely convinced that this was the right decision for our company at the time, it’s about the only deal we…"

"there really is no such thing as a free lunch. We’ve learned that even when a landlord or developer is generous in offering to contribute some or all of the costs associated with building a new restaurant, there are proprietary expectations to consider that are real and very natural. For example, The Modern is our restaurant, but it must operate in harmony with the overall goals of the Museum of Modern Art. We are prohibited from using our restaurants there for weddings or fund-raisers—two typical sources of profitable business."

"There’s another kind of “road not taken”—a decision that falls between a definitive no and an unequivocal yes. A potentially excellent venture may not be something we should pursue at the time of the offer, but might very well become right in due time. For example, JetBlue Airways approached us to get into the business of airport food kiosks. It was worth listening just for the opportunity to learn more about an engaging company whose culture of excellence and employees-first hospitality seemed so closely aligned with ours. The JetBlue officials explained that the opportunity had enormous growth potential, given the significant amount of “dwell time” travelers now spend in airports because of the increased security after 9/11, and because the airline does not serve passenger meals. The sales potential appeared quite large. “We love your restaurants,” their people told us. “We love the way you do business. It feels consistent with our culture. We want to be on the cutting edge of this business and we’d like to talk to you about it.”"

"then there was travel. My parents took vacations alone together at least twice each year, and with us in tow another three times a year. The Christmas and Easter vacations were often spent in Florida (in or around Miami, where my dad could be within striking distance of Hialeah or Gulfstream Park so that he could bet on the daily double)."

"This was one venture I viewed not just as a business opportunity but also as a tremendous privilege. Then Audrey, who knew how consuming this project would be for me—and for our family—said, “Of course you’ve got to go for this!” That settled it."

"Just as my choice of a watch to wear and a car to drive (and be seen driving) says something about me, so too does my choice of where I dine frequently. We want as many of our guests as possible to be proud to identify themselves with our restaurants. Our job is to give people a story worth telling."

"Firing myself as chef (or at least abandoning the notion that I might one day become a chef ) turned out to be one of the smartest business decisions I have ever made. My flight home from Rome was a scribble-fest. There were barely enough minutes within the eight-and-a-half hours for all the notes I was making on my time in Europe, and my plans for New York."

"Audrey is the first to notice when I’m out of balance, and call me on it. She knows that I tend to approach a new opportunity the way mountain climbers assess another mountain. It’s a tempting challenge that may look quite good from afar; but on closer scrutiny, many opportunities are far from good. I’m curious to see the view going up the mountain, and I’m curious to see it from on top of the mountain. One aspect of climbing I especially enjoy is the adventure and challenge of getting to know all the people with whom I’ll collaborate along the way. Each…"

"When my assistant told me that she had informed the developer that we were already looking elsewhere, my first reaction was “That’s a mistake!” It was important to take a look at 11 Madison. Even if we were to close a deal and one day open a restaurant at 225 Fifth, a competitor would eventually take the space at 11 Madison, and I felt we should at least learn what kind of deal that potential competitor would get. (ABCD!) Meeting with the developer not only would gain us information about a prospective rival but also would be a hedge against losing the deal at 225 Fifth."

"We began with a fantasy that what we were designing had always been the tavern for the Gramercy Park community, and that we had continued to update it over the past century. Now, as Gramercy Tavern, it would continue to play its earlier role as the community’s best place to meet, eat, and drink. As we pounded the pavement looking for a site, my one requirement was to be as close as possible to Union Square Cafe and the greenmarket."

"I was running around like one of the Three Stooges with less, not more, time for myself and my family, which by now included a one-year-old daughter, Hallie. Audrey, who loved Gramercy Tavern almost from the outset, couldn’t fully understand why I was pulling my hair out. Of course, she had begun to reprioritize her own talents now that she was a mom, and our beautiful new daughter was far more important than my bellyaching about either the new or the old restaurant."

"In hiring chefs, my goal is to do three things: develop a close, mutually trusting and respectful relationship; establish a shared vision of what the food should be; and encourage them to search their own heart and soul for inspiration, urging them to go further than they’ve ever gone before. I am especially proud of the enduring bonds of shared success and loyalty that I have enjoyed with our chefs over the years."

"It’s David’s role to explore and help create new business ventures that are true to our strategic vision and to further the dialogue with a prospective business partner. If things advance to a second conversation, David and I then discuss the…"

"IT HAD OCCURRED TO me in Woody Creek that until my fishing guide turned over that rock, I’d have been content to stand at the edge of the running stream enjoying the dreamy valley and mountains. But in business, turning over the rocks and reading the water, as a fly-fisherman might do, gives you crucial information so that you can take an even deeper interest in your customers, and encourages them to do the same with you."

"It may seem implicit in the philosophy of enlightened hospitality that the employee is constantly setting aside personal needs and selflessly taking care of others. But the real secret of its success is to hire people to whom caring for others is, in fact, a selfish act. I call these people hospitalitarians. A special type of personality thrives on providing hospitality, and it’s crucial to our success that we attract people who possess it. Their source of energy is rarely depleted. In fact, the more opportunities hospitalitarians have to care for other people, the better they feel."

"It’s not what you know, it’s whom you’ll listen to. Sometimes—very, very occasionally—I’m presented with an idea or invitation, and I know there’s a 99.9 percent probability I’m not interested in it. Yet my intuition tells me that it’s worth investigating, just to see what’s on the other side. I’ll allow myself to be open to new ideas, particularly when they’re presented by good people I know and trust. And when I hear those ideas from people I know and trust, I pay even stronger attention to my own instinct and intuition."

"With regard to the first point, I wanted to be in an area that could provide a strong lunch business. (I had learned from Pesca that a vibrant lunch service could help a restaurant to meet fixed costs, and furthermore that the kind of business clientele attracted by lunch could give the place an added identity.) I also wanted a neighborhood where a modest rent would allow me to offer excellent value to our guests."

"THE GREAT MARY FRANCES KENNEDY FISHER wrote in her memoir The Gastronomical Me, “It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it…and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied…and it is all one.”"

"You can get the best productivity from your employees only when they believe that their leadership is open-minded, is accessible, and welcomes input. Managers who give only lip service to an open-door policy effectively shut the door by being defensive, by not holding themselves accountable when they make a mistake, and mostly by not actively looking for ways to make their employees feel heard. We apply constant, gentle pressure to our leaders to stay tuned in to the aspirations and frustrations of staff members. We want the leaders not just to keep the door open but to walk out that door and actively beckon people to come in."

"I began to look all around me for ways to regain direction and control of both restaurants. In 1995, after intense internal debate, I went through an unpleasant professional divorce from a managing partner."

"Paul wondered if the new restaurant would provide growth opportunities for any of our top staff members, and, as importantly, whether or not we had enough of them to go around. Was anyone on our team ready to be promoted to chef or general manager?"

"Mary Kay would teach the sales people that everyone goes through life with an invisible sign hanging around his or her neck reading, “make me feel important.”"

"Contrary to my belief that you get more by giving more, they were concerned about how to get screwed less by protecting yourself more. That’s a valid model for some people—including many across the entire spectrum of businesses—but it’s one with which I’m completely uncomfortable. I don’t believe that the principle of erring on the side of generosity is inherently superior to the principle of fiercely protecting yourself in order to make as much money as possible. But generosity is the way I choose to do business in my restaurants, and so far it has always contributed mightily to our success."

"Selecting a restaurant space is a lot like trying on a pair of new shoes. The style has to be right, the size has to fit, and they have to feel good, or I simply won’t buy them. If I did buy them, I’d never wear them. I’ve declined a significant number of sweetheart deals from developers that were essentially offered for free. I understand how that resistance can frustrate my partners and investors. But the fact that something is free alone doesn’t make it wise or compelling to proceed."

"I encourage my staff to express and reveal their humanness, learn from their mistakes, lighten up, and relax. This is a contribution to the dialogue on hospitality that we work at quite consciously. But it, too, requires the optimal 51-49 mix. The idea is to attain a balance: hiring people who are naturally upbeat and genuine but who are also high-level achievers capable of delivering excellence. We make it clear to our employees that we’re going to give them a great troupe of positive, hopeful colleagues to work with, with whom they can feel mutual respect and trust, and with whom they will be asked to achieve lofty goals."

"I also check in with a small group of longtime trusted friends and mentors before I make a decision. Many of them are acquaintances and even customers, and some have become investors in our new restaurants. Their business…"

"At about this time, my assistant, Jenny Dirksen (now our director of community investment), shared a priceless expression her grandmother had taught her: One tuchas can’t dance at two weddings. It’s nice to be invited to a lot of parties. But as much as you may want to attend them all, it’s important to acknowledge that you can be in only one place at a time, and do one thing well. My own grandfather used to express similar wisdom: Doing two things like a half-wit never equals doing one thing like a whole wit."

"At this moment, “enlightened hospitality” was born. In a meeting of the entire staff of Gramercy Tavern, and with full agreement and support from Tom, I began to outline what I considered nonnegotiable about how we did business. Nothing would ever matter more to me than how we expressed hospitality to one another. (Who ever wrote the rule that the customer is always first?) And then, in descending order, our next core values would be to extend gracious hospitality to our guests, our community, our suppliers, and finally our investors. I called that set of priorities enlightened hospitality. Every decision we made from that day forward would be evaluated according to enlightened hospitality."

"I want to expand our company on my own terms. My unwavering, long-term vision of our company is that everything else is subsidiary to context—no matter how seductive a prospective deal may appear."

"If you’re trying to provide engaging hospitality and outstanding technical service, there must also be a certain amount of fun involved, and those bizarre questions gave me an idea of whether or not applicants had a sense of humor. They needed one, too, as our training sessions necessarily took place in the middle of Union Square Park. I’d buy a bushel of Jonagold apples and we would sit on the grass, munch on apples, and play-act service scenarios."

"Even after all the business aspects of a prospective new deal are discussed, dissected, and examined, I always call on Audrey, who, as my “secretary of life balance,” generally has an opinion as to whether a presumably good…"

"I try to be in the restaurants as often as possible. For nearly twenty years, until the opening of The Modern on West Fifty-third Street, all my restaurants were within a ten-minute walk of one another and my apartment—and I made it my business to visit every one of them during lunch. I’m not there just to greet and shake hands. I’m building daily communities within the restaurant’s larger community."

"I HAVE BEEN FLY-FISHING ONLY once in my life. It was in Woody Creek, Colorado, outside Aspen, and I went with a young guide who had come highly recommended by the original chef at Eleven Madison Park, Kerry Heffernan (no relation to my wife, Audrey), an expert fly-fisherman. My guide, displaying wisdom that belied his age, called me over as he waded into a clear, rushing stream, and picked up a small rock. He turned it over and smiled. From a distance, I noticed nothing unusual on its slick underside. I had no idea what he was looking for, or at. “Here, come look,” he said. He pointed out dozens of tiny aquatic insects hatching on the rock. This told him precisely which fly to tie because, as he explained, the trout would only bite on an artificial fly that resembled what was actually hatching. The guide then put the stone back exactly where he had found it. I was intrigued. There was a world of information under that rock, if only one knew or cared enough to look for it."

"a critically important role for me, as the leader of the company, was to define upfront what was nonnegotiable. That way, if employees were not comfortable, they could choose to walk."

"I don’t take a “rearview mirror” approach to life. Generally, I drive looking straight ahead. But I do try to spend time analyzing the wisdom of choices I’ve made not to go forward with new ventures; and that analysis requires abundant self-awareness and some hindsight. There are a handful of difficult “nos”—projects that I thought would have been the right fit for our company but that presented themselves at the wrong time. Other assessments have led me to conclude it was the right time for a project, but the wrong fit. A yes decision has to meet both of those criteria. My regret isn’t that I came to the wrong conclusion, but that I made a difficult, though correct, decision about what our company needed at a precise moment in time."

"Like any business owner, entrepreneur, or corporate executive, I had to figure out how to put winning systems in place, clarify for others all the things that I do and all the things that I expected everybody else to do, while repeatedly asking myself one essential question: How many of these things could be done at least as well or better by somebody else if only I were willing to let go and allow that to happen?"

"One day at Tabla a woman walked in for lunch and realized that she had left her wallet in the taxi. A summer intern from Cornell was working at the front desk that day and did his best to comfort the shaken woman, reassuring her that we’d of course extend her credit, and urging her to relax and enjoy lunch. That was good, but I thought we could do even better. I got Tabla’s general manager, Randy Garutti, involved. “Randy,” I said, “this woman is going to tell the whole world that she left her wallet in a taxi while she was on her way to Tabla. I know we can create a legend out of this somehow.” I didn’t give Randy a script to follow. But he knew exactly what I meant by creating a legend. He spoke to the woman and learned that she had also left her cell phone in the cab. He immediately had a staff member start calling her cell phone number. Meanwhile, the woman was seated, her friend arrived, and they ordered lunch. After half an hour of persistent redials, a man’s voice finally answered her phone. It was the taxi driver, who was by now way up in the Bronx. He confirmed that he had the wallet in his car too. Unbeknownst to the woman, we sent a staff member uptown to meet the driver and retrieve the wallet and cell phone, both of which were in her hands before the check for lunch was on the table. She was amazed and obviously delighted. We had turned a nightmare into a legend of hospitality. Our round-trip taxi ride had cost $31. I’d be surprised if the woman hasn’t already given Tabla 100 times that value in positive word-of-mouth."

"7. Approving Patience and Tough Love Tough love is another term for frank, “I’m on your side” honesty. It’s saying, “I care enough about you to tell you the truth, even if the truth is tough to hear.” Patience with tough love sends a clear message to your staff that you’re on their side. We also put a premium on outward and unequivocal messages of approval. It is absolutely incumbent on managers to praise employees for good work. As I once read in Kenneth Blanchard’s One Minute Manager, it’s the managers’ job to “catch people in the act of doing things right.” I subscribe to that and take it one step further. When managers catch somebody on their staff doing something right in a consistent or remarkable way, I encourage those managers to let me know about it first so that I can learn, and also so that I can connect with employees and tell them that their boss told me what a great job they’ve been doing, with specifics. This allows the employees to feel seen and appreciated by both their boss and me. It feels especially good and is a powerful motivator when your boss’s boss catches you doing something right."

"Situation 3: Most business owners or managers have a core group of customers or other people whose opinions carry special weight for them. In our industry, such a person could be a restaurant critic, who, if he or she writes for a major publication, shares those opinions with perhaps a million readers. For me personally, the person could be my mother or one of my siblings—after all these years, they know how to push my buttons (and I know how to push theirs). It could also be a frequent guest who always tells me exactly how he or she feels about a meal—and is loyal enough to return no matter how the last meal turned out. So, imagine that this person with an especially weighty opinion drops in unannounced to dine, and there is only one table left in the restaurant—a table that will be served by the person you are considering hiring. Is your reaction “Great!”—or is it “Oh, no!”"

"I soon became Checkpoint’s top salesman, covering the New York metropolitan area and earning nearly $100,000 in commissions. I quickly got to know every branch of every family tree of every New York retailing family that owned drugstores, clothing stores, grocery stores, coat stores, and shoe stores. I was making cold calls, meeting people, and getting to know every obscure corner of New York. As I had learned during Anderson’s campaign, I was reaching out and building a constituency. This was another indispensable lesson that would serve me well as a restaurateur."

"It’s the same with opening new restaurants, and with any new business initiative. The MoMA project was a massive challenge for our organization. I wish I could think of an even bigger word to describe it. As with each new business I’ve ever opened, I am profoundly confident that this story will have a happy ending."

"As we had learned to do many years ago with our guests, we were now giving our staff a lot more opportunities to feel heard. My mentor (and our longtime consultant) Erika Andersen gave me a gift when she taught me that for most people it’s far more important to feel heard than to be agreed with."

"Learning to manage volunteers—to whom, absent a paycheck, ideas and ideals were the only currency—taught me to view all employees essentially as volunteers. Today, even with compensation as a motivator, I know that anyone who works for my company chooses to do so because of what we stand for. I believe that anyone who is qualified for a job in our company is also qualified for many other jobs at the same pay scale. It’s up to us to provide solid reasons for our employees to want to work for us, over and beyond their compensation."