Hospitality In The Age Of Covid: A Conversation With Danny Meyer

The Covid-19 crisis has been especially devastating for restaurants, particularly those in New York City, the food-service capital of the U.S. The severity of the damage makes the insights of Danny Meyer, the foremost restaurateur in America—if not the world—particularly compelling, as heard in this next episode of my podcast, What’s Ahead.

Meyer’s eateries, which are primarily in the Big Apple, have been legendary for their excellence and innovation since the mid-1980s. Each of his facilities has created new types of dishes by deliciously combing traditional elements in ways that delight his guests.  He is also the founder of the chain Shake Shack, whose burgers, hot dogs and milk shakes are irresistible, as my waistline will attest.

Overnight, Covid-19 sent his revenues to zero.

There is no playbook for dealing with a catastrophe like this. When asked if this has been a nightmare, he quipped, “Only when I can sleep.”

You’ll be impressed with the ways Meyer has been dealing with laid-off employees, finding ways to begin to resuscitate his business and, at the same time, helping to get food to people who need it in distressed parts of the city.

What makes Meyer unique is that he has always practiced what he believes are the right priorities for a CEO—first taking care of your employees, then your guests, followed by your community and your suppliers. Then, and only then, your investors. With these priorities firmly set, Meyer’s investors end up doing better over time than those whose focus is only on “now dollars.”

You’ll be impressed and inspired by his fervent belief in hospitality and his observations on leadership. It’s not enough to serve fine food. You have to genuinely focus on making people feel they are special, which Meyer has done well.

Most relevantly, you’ll want to hear Meyer’s striking thoughts on what he hopes will unfold in the post-pandemic world.

On restaurants discriminating against patrons

“There are people who historically in our industry, I’m sad to say, have been discriminated against. Sometimes it’s because you didn’t come with enough people, sometimes it’s because you didn’t look old enough. Sometimes—you’re absolutely right, Steve—women have been subjected to core tables. I would say that, sadly, certain people of color have been subjected to poor tables by some restaurants because it was deemed that they were not going to be able to spend as much money. And that’s a blot on the record of our industry, and it’s something that, if there are…. People ask me all the time, you know, “Your industry’s been hit hard by Covid, are there any silver linings?” And I do believe that if this is not the comeuppance that our industry has needed to just remember—Why do we exist? We exist to provide safe places for people to restore themselves. You know, this is, this our moment to really fulfill that promise of hospitality.”

Pandemic playbook

“As you said earlier, there is no playbook for this. And the only playbook any of us has is really the values of our company and your own values as a compass.”

On being safe in a restaurant

“I heard someone really smart say last week, ‘Safety is the new ambience.’ So when you go to a restaurant today, you don’t really care what art is hanging on the walls, whether it’s inside or outside the restaurant. You want to know that it’s safe. And you can’t just say, ‘We’re safe;’ you actually have to be safe. … It’s up to us to take every single measure we can to make sure that if you work for us or you dine with us, that we’ve taken extra, extra care to make sure that you’re in a very safe environment.”

On how a chef’s talent starts

“I used to say that I’d like my gravestone to be engraved, ‘He majored in chefs.’ It’s a very interesting breed of people. I love chefs, and I love how every one of them speaks a slightly different language, but when you cook for other people and you’re really really good at it, it started somewhere. And it usually starts with trying to share with other people something that had touched you in your life.”