S6 E6 | The Lost Art Of Hospitality with Matt Lettelleir, author of The Open Door

It's a really interesting connection because most people don't think of hospitality as something that is driven by a municipality or even, I think, I mean, you go a step further and it's just an economic development strategy.

Absolutely.

How do you think we got away from that hospitality culture in St. Pete?

Sheer volume.

you know, St. Pete was a place that people came to for a season.

Then the seasons broke down and then with the beaches and summer and summer vacations and now it spreads out and you have the sheer volume and then just People change.

There's still Midwestern nice that comes to St. Pete, but we've got a lot of other folks in St. Pete, in the Tampa area.

I mean, this isn't just about St. Pete.

I want people to be clear about that.

But I use St. Pete as a case study.

And I think that we've gotten away from recognizing people, treating people like regulars, and making them feel genuinely welcome.

Well, you definitely, I mean, you've come from four generations, if I'm not mistaken, of

burgers, good burgers.

Yes.

If you will.

And so we're very familiar with the hospitality industry.

I mean, are there any stories you remember from your youth that I guess maybe are in the book or inspired that kind of hospitality mindset?

Yeah.

So my mom's grandfather, he was actually a senator from Kentucky and was a lumber baron up there.

And they he moved the family down to Florida in the in the 20s and I was he doing lumber down here

No,

okay.

No, he's not doing you use his money and came down.

Okay, and They bought a couple properties and hotels the sons went off I came here for all four of them went off or just a couple of my grandfather certainly one of them went off to the Cornell Hospitality School up in New York, up in Ithaca.

And came back and then they were running the hotels, kind of post-World War II era after they went and served.