Top 45 Danny Meyer Quotes

The part of capitalism that doesn’t work for me is when capitalists make decisions in the way that Adam Smith suggested, which is that as long as you do everything in the interest of the investor, you’re going to actually make the best decisions for all other stakeholders. I don’t happen to agree with that.

Union Square Cafe is all soul, not brain.

I just think the best way for me to be greedy is long-term greedy.

I think that more and more and more really talented restauranteurs and chefs from the fine dining world are going to try their hand at fine casual. They’re going to say, ‘Why not us?’

If someone said, ‘You’ve got to eat your next two meals at American fast-food restaurants,’ I would do one meal at Chipotle and one meal at Popeyes fried chicken.

I think that more and more and more really talented restauranteurs and chefs from the fine dining world are going to try their hand at fine casual. They’re going to say, ‘Why not us?’

I trust that McDonald’s can find a way to sell all-natural chicken without raising their prices; we did that at Shake Shack. It is more expensive, and we took a slight margin hit, but we did it. And if we can do it, I know that much bigger companies can.

Restaurants are like kids. You hope you understand their innate gifts, and then you let them realize their aspirations.

In one respect, it’s easier to open a restaurant in New York because you get more media attention than anywhere else. Almost everyone will try a new place once, irrespective of the reviews, because it’s a spectator sport.

Use your time well. Everyone gets time equally. It doesn’t matter how much money you make.

Some people are near- or farsighted – I’m thorn-sighted. The thorns on the rose are in really sharp definition for me, the rose petals a little fuzzier.

More and more, museums will look at restaurants and chefs differently – as if they are curating art.

In an age when so many groups are rolling out restaurants faster than your local baker makes donuts, my goal is that each restaurant feels hand-crafted. That they have their own soul.

The only thing I hate is when bad food is paraded as something great, and people are charging a lot for it.

If somebody doesn’t want to cook at home or has more family members than they have room for, then it’s great to be in a city that’s got restaurants that are actually busy on the holidays.

I don’t think there’s going to be sustainable demand for restaurants that force you to spend hours there.

Museums are like sports stadiums, hotels and hospitals: they are in the category of captive-audience dining.

I feel like not knowing Joe Torre is a hole in my New York experience.

One great worker equals three not-so-great workers, so it’s worth paying terrific people not just for today but to find people that we think have upward mobility to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Every restaurant needs to have a point of view.

If you develop a dialogue with me and take an interest in me, I’ll want to give you the business. It’s human nature.

Good service means never having to ask for anything.

People use restaurants to do business, to do politics, to socialize.

Service is how product is delivered – the technical aspect.

In order to encourage the cattle farmers to raise a herd of all-natural cattle, which is a several-year process, they have to know that it’s not just Shake Shack that wants to buy it. They have to have other buyers who are willing to pay more for all natural.

It’s always imperative to improve and to remain dynamic – or you’ll become lunch, as opposed to serving it.

At my restaurants, we have training drills before every meal. We talk about what we did yesterday that was great and what we can improve today.

A delicious meal cooked by a colleague for many others nourishes not only the body but also the soul.

London has become one of the great world destinations for someone who likes food.

Sometimes, early in their careers, chefs make the mistake of adding one too many things to a plate to get attention. If a chef is just coming up with wiz-bang gimmicks on their plate, that has nothing to do with bringing real pleasure to people.

Steak and its accompaniments – wine, vegetables, potatoes and generous desserts – is a primal source of pleasure to which many people can relate.

My staff’s job is to adjust to circumstances with technical precision and artful grace so that every patron has a wonderful experience.

Restaurants and chefs have become followed by such a broad swath of the public, in a way that used to be reserved for sports stars, movie stars, and theater actors. Restaurants are in the firmament of today’s common culture.

One of my great teachers was the late Jean-Claude Vrinat of Taillevent in Paris.

I learned that you shouldn’t take your most esoteric concept and fit it into the largest space with the highest fixed costs. It puts too much pressure on the restaurant to hit grand slams every day when there just aren’t enough people who want to watch that sport.

There are three things that people pick up on the instant they walk into your home on Thanksgiving. They will be able to feel the human energy. They’ll smell the food. And they will see, instantly, the table.

I don’t get to cook in my own restaurant.

Festive cocktails mean color, lots of color.

My favorite place is whichever sidewalk is beneath my feet because I am just constantly fascinated by walking and looking and learning. If I’ve already walked a street five times, then the next five times I walk it looking up, and I learn something about the cornices.

Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It’s all about hiring the right people.

There are a zillion variables to a hamburger. What part of the animal went into it. What coarseness. What temperature.

I never get sick on airplanes, which is incredible. You’re basically in a flying petri dish.

Wearing a baseball cap or sleeveless shirt in a white-tablecloth restaurant is rude and makes other diners upset, just like someone on a cellphone.

Gramercy Tavern appeared on the cover of New York Magazine the day we opened, and it was five deep at the bar with people who were not necessarily here to dine. They just wanted to kinda sniff out the hot, new restaurant.

‘Fine casual’ means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.