Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

Danny Meyer tells his story exceptionally well and runs his business the way the best of the best tell you to do it-execute your vision, pay attention to your customer and pay attention to detail. This is an autobiography in which the lessons of life and business cannot be separated.Having dined at Union Square Cafe(food was great) and 11 Madison Park(this was an incredible experience) I demanded that my kids get me this book for Christmas. The fact that it is a quick read is due to the absorbing content not the size.What a treat to read how he took a childhood vision and gradually turned it into a multi-faceted company with more than 1,000 people without losing touch with his roots. His attention to his staffs' needs and his customers' needs, his listening skills and the means with which he elicits feedback, responds to and solves problems as a means of self-improvement reflect his sense of fun.Danny Meyer shows that his greatest guide was his ability to learn from people around him and his desire to delight customers with something unique and special. Any CEO will learn volumes from reading this book regardless of the business.

Like Isadore Sharp of the Four Seasons Hotels group, Danny Meyer has taken a segment of the hospitality business that believed it knew everything there is to know, and turned it upside down. Who knew that radical acts such as empowering waitstaff, telling customers when they're wrong, and coming at the world from a position of humility and gratitude would be a recipe for outrageous success?As simple as it sounds, the insights and strategies in which Mr. Meyer has invested himself and his energized team of employees are the things all parents teach their children: "Shake hands and introduce yourself." "Say the person's name when you say hello to them." "Say please and thank you.""Setting the Table" is an easy read, and can be digested in several sittings without losing the plot or the author's thoughtful but gently charming voice throughout.This book resonates most when the author reflects on his father's sometimes unsuccessful history in the hospitality business - gently separating his sympathy for his father's failures from the nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from those failures in building towards his own success.Whether you are a Danny Meyer fan or a small business entrepreneur, there's something for everyone in this book. Read this book, share it with someone you like, and then go together and visit one of the author's restaurants. You'll see everything Meyer talks about in his book come together with apparent effortlessness.

This book is no doubt of general interest, but in my opinion it will be especially helpful to those in leadership positions in industries that have hospitality functions other than the restaurant business. I run a large health system in South, and found that I could translate many of the challenges that Mr. Meyer describes, and the strategies that he has developed to address them, to the challenges of running hospitals and medical schools. Hospital and hospitality have the same latin root, and the needs of patients and restaurant guests overlap. I downloaded the book on a plane thinking I would be interested in it because I grew up in NYC, am a bit of a foodie and have enjoyed dining in Danny Meyer restaurants. I enjoyed learning about the restaurant business, but I learned much more about leadership strategies from an angle that I would not normally encounter. Mr. Meyer writes well and can be quite pithy. I deleted one star only because I found his extensive description of his privileged upbringing, and his frequent name-dropping, to be a distraction (at least for me). That said, this is a minor criticism of an otherwise very useful book that is easy reading.

One of the best, most insightful books I have ever read. I loved getting to learn more about Danny Meyer's personal experience in the hospitality industry. I would highly recommend it to anyone who might be interested in hospitality!