Famed US restaurateur shares his wisdom with Taste clients

One of the biggest names in the American restaurant business took time out to share his learnings from the Coronavirus crisis with Taste clients and friends.

 Danny Meyer joined us via a video conference from Connecticut to discuss how his 20 restaurant Union Square Hospitality Group had coped with Covid-19, which has so far claimed over 100,000 American lives.

 New York has been a hotspot for the virus and that is where most of Meyer’s restaurants are based, including his legendary original establishments, Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café.

 “I had been due to travel to China and Italy but those trips were cancelled very early in the crisis. For me that was a heads up of what was to come” he told us. “From that point I watched the situation carefully and as soon as the virus hit New York, I took the decision to close the doors for the safety of staff and customers ahead of any official announcement”. 

 Since then over 30,000 people have died in the city and Meyer revealed one of his top chefs had been among the fatalities. The impact on staff has hit him hard. In his industry bible “Setting the Table, Meyer explains his approach to hospitality which has produced some of the top restaurants in America and the worldwide Shake Shack chain. The popular mantra is ‘the customer comes first’ but Meyer believes putting staff first is the best way to ensure a great experience for diners. Historically that has resented in levels of worker retention way above the industry average but when the current crisis and with none of the financial support we enjoy here, Meyer had no option but to lay off over 2,000 employees. 

 "In the absence of income, restaurants simply cannot pay our non-working team members for more than a short period of time without becoming insolvent. In that scenario, no one wins”, he explained.

 To cushion the blow Danny Meyer has diverted his salary into an emergency fund for former employees. All income from gift vouchers plus the sales of restaurant wine stocks and other revenue streams is helping bolster the fund which is intended to support workers until they can be rehired.

 One challenge may be getting staff to stick around. Danny reckons Coronavirus makes major cities much less attractive places to live and work and that could lead to an exodus of some workers. 

 In the long term he is confident the industry will recover but he says it will take time and look different on the other side.

 “In the 35-year history of Union Square Hospitality Group, this is, without a doubt, the most challenging period we have encountered. After 9/11, New York was hit hard but eating out was how people showed their resolve and determination. This is different. We’ve never seen such a sustained and massive threat to both the physical safety and economic livelihoods of the hospitality industry as a whole”. 

 For Taste clients who have turned to home delivery as a way for restaurants to get through the crisis, Danny Meyer thinks it is a good move and won’t impact on brand identity in the long term. “The smart people are doing good comfort food, the kind of thing you can’t make at home but want to eat at home” he said. 

 A few of his restaurants are looking at take-out food in the short term but in the longer-term Danny has hired architects to look at what needs to be done to safely open his restaurants to staff and customers. He will then decide his next move but a couple of weeks ago he told Bloomberg, ““There is no interest or excitement on my part to having a half-full dining room while everyone is getting their temperature taken and wearing masks, for not much money”, he said.

 To finish, Danny wished Taste clients well in their journey through the current crisis “It doesn’t matter where we are, we are all in this together”, he said.