Photos by Lucas Peterson courtesy of St. Louis County Library
Long before Danny Meyer was a successful, world-renowned restaurateur, he was a kid growing up in St. Louis. Today, as the lauded founder of Union Square Hospitality Group, he has redefined hospitality and reshaped the industry, yet he credits his success with a simple value from his Midwestern childhood: being nice.
If this sounds obvious, it was anything but when Meyer moved to New York City in the early 1980s. At a time when fine dining was dominated by elitism and exclusivity, Meyer took a different approach — and it worked.
He shared these and other lessons spanning leadership, learning from business challenges, and how to embed optimism into life and work on Sat., Sept. 26 at St. Louis County Library‘s Clark Family Branch in promotion of his latest book, What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture. The event was the first in the library’s Business Author Series in partnership with Greater St. Louis, Inc., and the conversation with Meyer was moderated by Ron Kitchens, Managing Partner at Greater St. Louis, Inc. Kristen Sorth, SLCL Director and CEO, introduced Meyer and Kitchens.
Kristen Sorth, SLCL Director and CEO, welcomes Danny Meyer and Ron Kitchens to the stage.
Meyer is famous for New York restaurants including Gramercy Tavern, The Modern inside the Museum of Modern Art, and Blue Smoke, a barbecue concept partially inspired by the late southern Illinois barbecue legend Mike Mills. Yet perhaps his most obvious homage to the Midwest is the world-acclaimed Shake Shack, the burger-and-shake chain that draws from his youth in St. Louis eating at spots like Fitz’s, Crown Candy Kitchen, Carl’s Drive In, Steak ’n Shake, and Ted Drewes.
And Meyer’s youth in St. Louis is what kicked off the conversation on Saturday evening, with Kitchens asking him the quintessential St. Louis question: “Where’d you go to high school?” With a smile, Meyer replied, “John Burroughs School. I know I don’t look this old, but it’ll be my 50th high school reunion tonight. Can you believe that? But I also want to say that due to my poor scholarship, I actually went to five schools here in St. Louis. Six if you include nursery school.”
Meyer, who attended his 50th high school graduation following the author event, then praised the St. Louis restaurant scene both for its quality and gracious hospitality. “Whenever I come to St. Louis, I eat too much because the food scene here has gotten so good,” he said. “The people are so nice and I feel so at home.”
That warm hospitality was evident from the moment Meyer arrived at Clark Family Branch. While signing copies of his book backstage, he was happily surprised to receive a delivery of Imo’s Pizza. “I had a slice — excuse me, a square,” Meyer said with a laugh.
While discussing the initial idea for Shake Shack, which Meyer delves into further in his new book, What Could Possibly Go Right?, he shared how the chain got its start. The concept grew out of an effort to bring people into Madison Square Park through art, food, and hospitality. What started as a fairly simple hot dog cart became unexpectedly popular after several seasons, eventually leading to a permanent kiosk — and ultimately, the Shake Shack concept.
“I started thinking of all the stuff I had loved growing up here, and I used to love going to Fitz’s,” Meyer said. “You’d drive your car, put on your lights, and they’d come take your order and bring a tray of food out to your car — that’s where I got the idea for the crinkle-cut fries. And they used to do kitchen sauce. Well, we made a different recipe called Shack Sauce. And of course I loved Carl’s, Crown Candy Kitchen, and Steak ‘n Shake. I didn’t make any of this stuff up. This was St. Louis. This was my childhood. And the reason that I went to all those places, the only way you got independence as a teenager was to get your driver’s license at 16. And what did you do? You told your parents you were coming to the St. Louis County Library, but what you were really doing was going to one of these places and hanging out in the parking lot with your friends. And so the frozen custard at Ted Drewes and the burgers at all these places, it was really, really good, but it was almost beside the point. The real point was to be with people.”
“And so I said to myself, our park in New York is the substitute for the parking lots that I used to go to. In fact, I closed my eyes and I imagined Ted Drewes on a summer night with the lines of people. I said, ‘That’s what I want to do for Madison Square Park.’ I’m telling you, it was never an idea that Shake Shack… I never had the idea except it just, this is what I mean when I say ‘what could possibly go right?’ And by taking that approach to all this decision making, a whole lot of things did go right. Just to prove my point that this was never intended to be a chain, it took me five years to open a second one. And now there’s over 700 in 22 countries.”
Without missing a beat, Kitchens replied, “I guess it’s going to work out,” to applauses from the audience.
Kitchens then noted that Meyer was launching his new book in St. Louis at the library event that evening. “Well, of course we launched the book in St. Louis,” Meyer said proudly. “Where else would we launch the book? When you read it, and I really hope you will, you will see that St. Louis plays a very, very important role in my whole journey of hospitality.”
While describing the writing process for his acclaimed 2008 book, Setting the Table, Meyer put a finer point on that important role. “When I wrote Setting the Table, I was looking at the previous almost 25 years, and I was asking myself what was working so well? And really what I uncovered was hospitality, and I often publicly credit my upbringing in St. Louis for that. We didn’t have all the great chefs when I grew up here that you have today, but we did have lots and lots of hospitality. I came to New York not too long after college, and I noticed that while the food was really good, they weren’t very nice to you. I didn’t get that. I just didn’t understand why there were both New York patrons and New York restaurant people who thought that the worse you treated people, the more they would want to eat there. That’s just weird if you ask me. But I just wanted to bring what we have always done here to there.”
Throughout the conversation with Kitchens, Meyer referenced his successes and challenges over the years, imparting wisdom along the way, while also praising St. Louis for its warm hospitality and thriving restaurant scene. In particular, he mentioned Loryn Nalic, the chef-owner of Balkan Treat Box in Webster Groves, who won the coveted James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest this year. Over loud applause, Kitchens noticed Nalic in the audience and encouraged her to wave so the audience could better direct their praise.
Near the end of the evening, as a Q&A with the audience came to a close, someone asked Meyer a simple question: “What makes you proud to tell people that you’re from St. Louis?”
Meyer first responded with a funny yet sincere, “You,” before closing out the event with one more toast to St. Louis.
“You can’t take St. Louis out of me,” Meyer said. “And you know what? The longer I’ve lived in New York, I love it even more. I love New York as well — I want to be clear about that — but this notion that we are a flyover city, that people have no idea the depth of sophistication and taste and care and love and smarts that are in this city. I love taking people by surprise. That’s what I love most about it. It’s like they underestimate us, don’t they? And so we got something to show them. I love that.”
LEARN MORE:
- The second author in the series, former St. Louis Blues captain Chris Pronger, brings a different perspective on leadership, drawing on his experiences in professional sports and the challenges of motivating himself and his team. The author series event with Pronger happens Oct. 4 and will focus on his book, Earned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey’s Fiercest Competitors.