Quotes from Danny Meyer

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

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.

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

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

A great restaurant is one that just makes you feel like you're not sure whether you went out or you came home and confuses you. If it can do both of those things at the same time, you're hooked.

Earlier in my career, I needed to be the writer, casting director, set designer, leading man, and producer. I've been eliminating a lot of those jobs. I'm an executive producer right now. I still get to pick the best screenplays.

Service is how product is delivered - the technical aspect.

Festive cocktails mean color, lots of color.

Whole Foods has been brilliant at changing the way food is produced because they just won't buy it if it doesn't meet their standards.

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?'

When push comes to shove, baseball is one of my favorite things in the world.

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.

Restaurants with small courses that give the customer choices, and that don't obligate them to spend a fortune, are going to do very well.

What you can do is present existing flavors in a fresh way, in a fresh context.

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.

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

My dad gave me the gene to enjoy cooking, and to enjoy consuming good food and wine.

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

You can't let challenges argue you out of doing what you know is the right thing.

In the restaurant business, as opposed to the theater, center orchestra is an 8 P. M. reservation. Orchestra on the side is 7 or 8:30. Mezzanine is 6 and 9. But people don't take it personally when they call the theater and can't get what they want.

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.

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.

Today, it's almost the outlier if people are not photographing what they ate and then sharing that in real time.

The great thing about capitalism is that it's a system that works.