Archive for May, 2007

Danny Meyer

Danny Meyer

Continuing our recap of the GEL conference:

Danny Meyer, the entrepreneur behind the Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern among others, gave a talk about hospitality in the restaurant business. He talked about how quality and service were no longer enough, but that employees needed to have high HQ, or hospitality quotient (yeah it’s gimmicky, but it’s memorable). Danny claims that you can’t learn this, but you can learn to hire the right people. I’m not sure I agree with this, but I like his broader point about making the customer trust that you are on their side.

After a recommendation by Kottke, I got a burger at the Shake Shack, another Danny Meyer project. Interestingly, the excessively long line actually contributes to the experience: standing around for more than an hour heightens your hunger to the breaking point, but when the food lives up to expectations, the wait endured only makes it taste better — it was worth it! (Of course, I ran into some newfound GEL friends in line, so I didn’t have to wait quite so long, but let’s ignore that…)

[photo by Bonimo]