Danny Meyer

Service is how product is delivered - the technical aspect.

Good service means never having to ask for anything.

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

The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.

Be aware of textural elements throughout a party, like silverware, stemware, and linens. But the biggest element is metaphorical: it's your own touch. How are you making people feel?

Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.

You cannot open a major New York restaurant today and not be aware that showbiz will play a role.

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

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.

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

Union Square Cafe is all soul, not brain.

I've been in love with Washington ever since renting my very first apartment there many years ago while working as a Senate intern.