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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/14\/dining\/danny-meyer-hospitality-book.html?emc=edit_ufn_20260925&nl=from-the-times&segment_id=227057",
    "parsed_content": "Why Is Danny Meyer, the Happy Face of Hospitality, Serving Up Regrets?In a new memoir, the man behind Shake Shack and a suite of influential restaurants revisits the business blunders that taught him valuable lessons.Danny Meyer orders a plain cheeseburger when he visits any Shake Shack so he can better check the flavor of the beef blend the chain uses for quality.Credit...Amir Hamja For The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section NavigationSection NavigationAccountAccountGoHome U.S.SECTIONSU.S.PoliticsNew YorkCaliforniaEducationHealthObituariesScienceClimateWeatherSportsBusinessTechThe UpshotThe MagazineTOP STORIESDonald TrumpSupreme CourtCongressImmigrationAbortionLatest PollsNEWSLETTERSThe MorningMake sense of the day\u2019s news and ideas.The EveningCatch up on big news, and wind down to end your day.See all newslettersPODCASTSThe DailyThe biggest stories of our time, in 20 minutes a day.See all podcastsWorldSECTIONSWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaAustraliaCanadaEuropeMiddle EastScienceClimateWeatherHealthObituariesTOP STORIESMiddle East CrisisRussia-Ukraine WarChina International RelationsThe Global ProfileLeer en Espa\u00f1olNEWSLETTERSThe WorldA guide to understanding the news, made for readers around the globe.Your Places: Global UpdateThe latest news for any part of the world you select.Canada LetterBackstories and analysis from our Canadian correspondents.See all newslettersBusinessSECTIONSBusinessTechEconomyMediaFinance and MarketsDealBookPersonal TechEnergy TransitionYour MoneyTOP STORIESU.S. EconomyStock MarketArtificial IntelligenceNEWSLETTERSDealBookThe most crucial business and policy news you need to know.On TechOur best tech reporting from the week.See all newslettersPODCASTSHard ForkOur tech journalists help you make sense of the rapidly changing tech world.See all podcastsArtsSECTIONSToday's ArtsBook ReviewBest SellersDanceMoviesMusicTelevisionTheaterPop CultureT MagazineVisual ArtsRECOMMENDATIONS100 Best Movies of the 21st CenturyCritic\u2019s PicksWhat to ReadWhat to WatchWhat to Listen To5 Minutes to Make You Love MusicNEWSLETTERSBooksReviews, news and features to help you find your next read.WatchingStreaming TV and movie recommendations.See all newslettersPODCASTSBook ReviewThe podcast that takes you inside the literary world.PopcastPop music news, new songs and albums, and artists of note.See all podcastsLifestyleSECTIONSAll LifestyleWellTravelStyleReal EstateFoodLoveYour MoneyPersonal TechT MagazineCOLUMNS36 HoursAsk WellThe HuntModern LoveWhere to EatVowsSocial Q\u2019sThe EthicistAsk the TherapistNEWSLETTERSThe WeekenderUnwind with stories about culture and the way we live.WellEssential news and guidance to live your healthiest life.See all newslettersPODCASTSModern LoveThe complicated love lives of real people.See all podcastsOpinionSECTIONSOpinionGuest EssaysEditorialsOp-DocsVideosLettersTOPICSPoliticsWorldBusinessTechClimateHealthCultureCOLUMNISTSJamelle BouieMaureen DowdDavid FrenchThomas L. 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Win ProjectionsNEWSLETTERSThe PulseDelivering the top stories in sports, Sunday to Friday.See all newslettersPLAYConnections: Sports Edition Connections: Soccer Edition Connections Coach U.S.InternationalCanadaEspa\u00f1ol\u4e2d\u6587Why Is Danny Meyer, the Happy Face of Hospitality, Serving Up Regrets?In a new memoir, the man behind Shake Shack and a suite of influential restaurants revisits the business blunders that taught him valuable lessons.Danny Meyer orders a plain cheeseburger when he visits any Shake Shack so he can better check the flavor of the beef blend the chain uses for quality.Credit...Amir Hamja For The New York TimesSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 12:58 min Share full articleBy Kim SeversonTo report this article, Kim Severson ate two meals with Danny Meyer, rode the subway with him and attended his presentation to company managers.Published Sept. 14, 2026Updated Sept. 15, 2026For the man most likely to win a contest for New York\u2019s Cheeriest Multimillionaire, few things kill the mood faster than spilled ketchup.You\u2019d think Danny Meyer would have other things to fuss over. In the course of 41 years, he has done more than any other restaurateur to shape American hospitality.He created New York fine-dining landmarks like Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern and the Modern. He powered up the careers of the chefs Tom Colicchio and Daniel Humm. He turned a Manhattan hot-dog stand into a public company that now sells more than $1.45 billion worth of Shake Shack burgers a year in 703 restaurants spread across more than 20 countries.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTDetails have always been his obsession. When he opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe, in 1985, it was olive pits. \u201cFor some reason people would drop their olive pits on the floor, and I would have to teach people to pick them up,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s dried ketchup on the condiment stand.\u201dImageDanny Meyer checks in regularly on the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in Manhattan.Credit...Amir Hamja for The New York TimesMr. Meyer and I are splitting burgers and a coffee milkshake at a table outside the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, where the condiment stand appears to be in pretty good shape. He likes to eat at a Shake Shack when he travels to other cities, always ordering a plain cheeseburger to gauge the flavor of the Angus blend the company uses, without the distraction of onions or sauce.The coffee shake is a more personal barometer. It came off the menu during the pandemic, and Mr. Meyer has spent the years since advocating for its return, both publicly and privately. He used a favorite management technique outlined in his best-selling 2006 guide to hospitality, \u201cSetting the Table\u201d: Apply constant, gentle pressure.Persistence paid off. The shake came back last September, along with a lesson. He prefers persuasion over edict, and is unfailingly optimistic that people will eventually do the right thing. But, he concedes, \u201cit would have been a lot faster if I said, \u2018Just do it.\u2019\u201dSimilar calibrations from his past 20 years in the business form the core of his new book, \u201cWhat Could Possibly Go Right?\u201d which publishes on Sept. 29. It\u2019s the tale of personal struggles wrapped in graduate-level business case studies explained in the motto-on-a-coffee-mug style he loves.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImageAn always optimistic Mr. Meyer turns mistakes into lessons in his new book, which publishes Sept. 29.Credit...Random HouseThe book joins a microgenre of memoirs by New York restaurant moguls. Mr. Meyer\u2019s is certainly not as dishy or name-droppy as those from Drew Nieporent or Keith McNally, the bistro impresario who last year published his raw, revealing memoir, \u201cI Regret Almost Everything.\u201dMr. McNally wrote in an email for this article that while he likes Mr. Meyer and admires his restaurants, he doesn\u2019t enjoy them \u201cbecause they\u2019re soulless and seem put together by A.I.\u201d In response, an amused Mr. Meyer pointed out a 2022 Instagram post in which Mr. McNally mentioned a New Year\u2019s resolution: \u201cI\u2019d particularly like to have sex in the bathroom of a restaurant owned by Daniel Boulud or Danny Meyer. Especially Danny Meyer.\u201dArriving at \u2018No\u2019At 68, Mr. Meyer is regarded as America\u2019s guru of great service. Corporations like Delta Air Lines and Marriott International pay his company to teach its methods to their employees.But his book focuses on the missteps he made while expanding his empire. \u201cThere were moments I felt ashamed over how many mistakes I\u2019ve made over time. Embarrassed might be a better word,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there are gifts in there. Sometimes you don\u2019t see them at first, but they are always there.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe list of errors is not short. Concocting a chain of ill-timed, overly complex cold-pressed juice bars inside Equinox gyms. Waiting too long to close Tabla, a groundbreaking New York restaurant that married Indian flavors to classic French technique but couldn\u2019t turn a profit. Wanting to keep talented people happy so badly that he let an entrepreneurial chef open Martina, a Roman-style pizza place aimed to scale up like Shake Shack, even though his gut told him \u201cwe were putting scale before soul.\u201dImageOne of Mr. Meyer\u2019s failures was a company called Creative Juice, which operated inside Equinox gyms.Credit...Tony Cenicola\/The New York Times\u201cHistorically, it has taken me much longer to arrive at \u2018no\u2019 than it should have,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a people pleaser, with a predisposition to find a way to say yes. I want people to like me.\u201d Everyone who is good at hospitality feels that deep down, he said.In his earlier book, Mr. Meyer introduced his signature concept of \u201cenlightened hospitality,\u201d which emphasizes hiring people who are technically skilled but, more important, can make customers and co-workers feel good. He believes employees, rather than customers, are the first consideration in a cycle that creates happy guests, a strong community and suppliers and investors who can make money.A couple of very public failures taught him that sometimes customers should come first.He decided to change Shake Shack\u2019s frozen fries to fresh in 2013 after New York food writers took aim. Pete Wells, then the New York Times restaurant critic, wrote, \u201cMr. Meyer runs one of the world\u2019s great restaurant companies. Can\u2019t one of his chefs show him how to make a decent French fry?\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTShake Shack employees who lived through the fresh-fry era still quake at the memory of tubs sloshing with water-soaked potatoes, limp fries and angry customers. The company threw in the towel in 2014, switching back to frozen fries, albeit of better quality. Shake Shack fans cheered.A weightier but equally quixotic campaign came a year later, when Mr. Meyer eliminated tipping at Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants and raised menu prices an average of 20 to 25 percent. The goal was to equalize compensation between the kitchen and the dining room, and raise wages.ImageMr. Meyer honed his touch with customers at his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe.Credit...Union Square Hospitality GroupRestaurant owners applauded. Time magazine proclaimed Mr. Meyer one of the world\u2019s most influential people. But waiters quit. Customers were confused. Social media turned against him. He and other restaurateurs faced lawsuits accusing them of fixing menu prices.When Mr. Meyer\u2019s restaurants began to reopen after the pandemic shutdown, he brought tipping back. \u201cI\u2019m not persuaded that restaurants in America will ever completely give up on tips,\u201d he writes, \u201cbut I do predict a gradual chipping away.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSome of his missteps were less about misreading the business landscape than about missing societal shifts.He writes that the restaurant group failed to respond quickly enough when complaints of abusive chefs at some of its restaurants surfaced during the #MeToo era. Shake Shack gave back $10 million in federal Covid relief after independent restaurant owners complained that big chains had drained the pool. When a police officer killed George Floyd, he writes, the company was slow to see the impact on employees, and had to examine its own blind spots on race and social justice.Family TherapyThere are more intimate moments in the book. Mr. Meyer describes himself as the anomaly in his St. Louis family, a late bloomer worried that his voice would never change and overshadowed by his older sister, a star student. He liked sports, weed, girls and betting on horses. He was rejected by Princeton and Brown, ending up at Trinity College, and has since become a devoted alumnus.ImageMr. Meyer became closer to his mother, Roxie, later in lifeCredit...Union Square Hospitality GroupMr. Meyer lived in the shadow of grandfathers who were successful businessmen and civic leaders. As a child, he had a difficult relationship with his mother, who ran an art gallery. He was close to his father, a charismatic travel entrepreneur who cemented Mr. Meyer\u2019s love of Rome with a trip there on his 12th birthday. He went bankrupt twice by the time Mr. Meyer was 21, leaving his son with a lifelong fear of taking financial risk.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWhile Mr. Meyer was still in college, he confronted his father about his erratic behavior when he drank. They remained estranged until his father died in 1990.Writing the book was therapeutic for him, said his wife of 38 years, Audrey Heffernan Meyer, a stage and screen actor. He let her read it just two months ago.\u201cI\u2019m relieved for him,\u201d she said. \u201cCertainly, he talks about these things, but he is just always on the surface full of sunshine and friendliness and caring. It shows the depth that he has, rather than, \u2018Oh here\u2019s Danny Meyer. Everything goes right for him.\u2019 \u201dImageMr. Meyer and his wife, the actress Audrey Heffernan Meyer, in 2015 in their Gramercy Park apartment.Credit...Jane Beiles for The New York TimesThe couple, who split their time between New York City and 99 acres they own in western Connecticut, raised four children. Their eldest, Hallie, founded the New York ice cream company Caff\u00e8 Panna in 2019. Their other children have gone into music, social work and medicine.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIna Garten has known Mr. Meyer since the 1980s. She and her husband moved into the Union Square neighborhood about the same time Mr. Meyer opened Union Square Cafe. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen him change at all, and neither did Audrey,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the extraordinary things about him.\u201dMs. Garten, herself a noted host, still takes her cues from Mr. Meyer when it comes to making guests feel welcome. \u201cHe is all about loving people and making sure everybody is as happy as they can be,\u201d she said. \u201cHe feels responsible for that.\u201dEven Mr. Colicchio, who waged a bitter battle with Mr. Meyer over control of Gramercy Tavern, which the two opened in 1994, said \u201che\u2019ll go down as one of the greats.\u201d\u201cI\u2019ve had my issues like anyone who you do business with, but he\u2019s earned his reputation,\u201d Mr. Colicchio said. \u201cHe\u2019s a good family man with a solid marriage. He\u2019s a showman and a very good salesman.\u201dImageMr. Meyer and the chef Tom Colicchio opened Gramercy Tavern in 1994, but Mr. Colicchio left in 2006.Credit...Chance Yeh\/Patrick McMullan, via Getty ImagesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn 2022, Mr. Meyer stepped down as chief executive of Union Square Hospitality, where he retains the title of founder and executive chairman. He is still Shake Shack\u2019s chairman.\u2018Another Song Up My Sleeve\u2019With the book done and with fewer corporate responsibilities, he could simply relax into being a grandfather and spending more time in nature, the place that makes an already happy man happier. But he is nowhere near ready.He has his hands deep in his company\u2019s restaurants, which include nearly a dozen all-day Daily Provisions cafes and stars like Ci Siamo, a Manhattan restaurant that will expand to Boston later this year, along with new full-service spots coming to Brooklyn and Detroit. He handicaps new businesses through Enlightened Hospitality Investments, an arm of the Union Square group that invested early in Salt & Straw, Resy and Goldbelly, and has expanded to indoor golf and Studs, which the group says has \u201creimagined the ear piercing experience.\u201d\u201cMaybe I\u2019m trying to prove to myself I have another song up my sleeve, and that\u2019s fun,\u201d he said.ImageThe spectacular views of New York inspired Mr. Meyer to open Manhatta on the 60th floor of a building in the financial district. Credit...Amir Hamja for The New York TimesI asked Mr. Meyer to pick a restaurant where we might continue our interview over dinner. He chose Elio\u2019s, the Upper East Side Italian stalwart that was a favorite of Joan Didion\u2019s and still holds a table in the front for Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMr. Meyer eats there about four times a year, as a way to remember why he became Danny Meyer. On the eve of his law school exams, his aunt and uncle took him there. The idea of becoming a lawyer was making him miserable.\u201cWhy would you want to do something you don\u2019t want to do?\u201d his uncle asked him. \u201cAll I have ever heard you talk about was food and restaurants.\u201dAt our dinner, Mr. Meyer ordered the same dish he did back then \u2014 a Cornish game hen \u2014- along with a side of pasta pomodoro. He asked for some cheese. The waiter returned, dumped a meager dose of pre-grated Parmesan on Mr. Meyer\u2019s pasta and left without a word.I braced for a withering critique. Mr. Meyer laughed.\u201cIt\u2019s really easy for me to go to someone else\u2019s restaurant because I don\u2019t care about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI just want to have a good time with the people I\u2019m with.\u201dFrom the commentsKim SeversonFood reporterBefore Danny Meyer, everyone just called the part of the restaurant experience when you got seated and fed service. Hospitality happened when you went to your neighbor\u2019s for dinner.Now, the idea of hospitality \u2014 that thing that makes you feel welcomed and cared for and happy when you leave \u2014 is a term of art in the restaurant business. I'd like to know from you: What makes good hospitality?Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
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