Union Square Hospitality Group

hard to pick one because they're all my precious babies, but the one I'm most excited about that I just finished reading a couple of weeks ago is by Danny Meyer, and it's called What Could Possibly Go Right? So Danny Meyer wrote Setting the Table.

He is the founder and chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group, which is responsible for Union Square Cafe and also Shake Shack and a lot of other phenomenal restaurants.

But this is a leadership book and it's really about how you scale culture.

And while he was building out his kind of empire, he really had to make sure that the things that made each restaurant unique could scale from restaurant to restaurant without losing that distinctiveness.

But I was one of those places – I was one of those people that – You know, I want to kind of stick it through.

And I think Danny and the team at USHG was like very good about saying like, hey, like we will place you somewhere else within our company.

Like, don't worry, we're not going to.

And it was very important for them to not just be one of those.

And like, yeah, I think we just, we also had like a really good group of people that came from that Maialino set that like went on to do amazing things.

I mean- I mean, talk about that a

bunch, like, I feel like the time that you were there, and Maelino, but I also feel like USHG in particular, like that sort of 2008 to like 2014, the talent that was at his restaurants was fucking insane.

And the people that left to do other stuff, has been crazy.

And we let people know that when you have a performance review, we're gonna be talking about how you're doing with the 49% and how you're doing with the 51%.

We even h- at, at Union Square Hospitality Group, with all of our restaurants, when you work for us, one of the benefits is you have a 51% dining discount whenever you come to any of our places, and it's just constantly reinforcing what matters.

And then not just words on the wall, but we also catch people doing things right, and we're very, very clear with what you did right that reinforces the culture.

And then probably the most important thing, Allison, is that the people that get the promotions as you're growing have got to be the people that best illustrate, exemplify, embody the behaviors as well as the technical performance you want.

And without further ado, let's get to Danny Meyer.

Dear listener, joining me now is none other than Danny Meyer, founder and executive chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group.

Danny is the restaurateur behind Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Daily Provisions, and many, many more, as well as the founder of a little thing called Shake Shack.

His new book, What Could Possibly Go Right, comes out September 29th, and he'll be in Los Angeles on October 5th for the LA Chef Conference, where he'll be in conversation with with Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison.

I'm turning on CNBC, seeing Danny Meyer.

maybe a billionaire, owner of Union Square Hospitality Group, Shake Shack.

Well, have to lay off 800 people, but look, our stock is safe.

This guy, Alex, just a normal dude.

So it's worth taking a look there.

I think it's probably worth a mention that there are some really good restaurants on there to like Union Square Hospitality has a bunch of their restaurants on there.

They've got a couple with Michelin stars that are on in kind Gramercy Tavern, and the modern both are Michelin star restaurants that are on in kind.

So Again, you're not going to get very many opportunities to save 35% on that type of a restaurant.

For any of us that are in the restaurant business, this is the one guy we have great respect for, because not only...

Did he create the Union Square Hospitality Group? But there is also a national burger chain that he is behind that is a separate company that started in Union Square Park in New York and now is a pretty massive operation.

So tell us about the panel Danny is going to be on.

He's just doing a one-on-one talk with Bill Addison, okay? And he has a book coming out about five days before LHFCon.

They go on to say that the value of ready-made dishes for the occasion of Lunar New Year in February in China jumped eightfold from right before the pandemic to $38.5 billion, according to iMedia.

They call it Union Square Hospitality Group, which runs a dozen or so restaurants in New York, and say they have reformulated menus and packaging at daily provisions and cafe chain to address the demand for takeaways.

Their new cafes are now built with a separate lane for pickups to avoid disrupting diners.

They finally end with a restaurant back home in Buffalo where they say Osteria 166 in downtown Buffalo was turning over $60,000 a week in meatball, spaghetti, and generous martinis.