Lessons in Enlightened Hospitality

Strong leaders make people want to work harder and feel happy to be there. Their arrival prompts employees to check that everything is right, but it also brings smiles. People make the extra effort because they care about the work and want their leaders to see it.

At Tabla, Floyd showed Will Guidara how demanding standards could coexist with that affection. He asked Guidara to chop an onion. Guidara had some cooking experience, but he was nervous about meeting Floyd’s expectations—and failed to meet them. Floyd threw the chopped onion away, took the knife, and demonstrated the right method without yelling. His attention to such a basic task showed how seriously he took the work. Tabla was Floyd’s dream, and his team wanted to help it succeed.

Stories also taught employees what care could look like beyond their assigned tasks. In Setting the Table, Danny Meyer tells of a couple celebrating their anniversary at one of his restaurants. During dinner, they remembered a bottle of champagne left in their freezer. Worried it would explode before they got home, they asked the sommelier what to do.

The sommelier took their keys and went to rescue it. Rescuing the anniversary champagne allowed the couple to finish dinner without worrying. At home, they found the bottle in the refrigerator, together with a tin of caviar, a box of chocolates, and an anniversary card from the restaurant.

That story circulated through the company and encouraged employees to notice similar opportunities. When a guest at Tabla said she needed to leave her meal to feed a parking meter, offering to do it for her felt natural.

Feeding guests’ parking meters eventually became part of regular service. Hosts asked how guests had arrived, then where drivers had parked. If a car was at a street meter, an employee could add two quarters while its owner ate. This was a grace note: a small, unnecessary addition that made the experience better. It cost fifty cents and happened outside the restaurant, yet guests were astonished by the thoughtfulness.

Making the gesture routine meant guests no longer had to depend on one employee having an inspired moment. Staff came to see it as ordinary, while guests continued to experience it as something special.

Enthusiasm is Contagious

Randy Garutti, Tabla’s general manager and later CEO of Shake Shack, brought exuberance that complemented Floyd’s intensity. Together, they showed Union Square Hospitality Group’s combination of energy and integrity.

Richard Coraine often reminded the team that one enthusiastic person could set something extraordinary in motion. Randy demonstrated that at pre-meal meetings. He gave encouraging speeches, pumped his fist, and sent people into service believing they could succeed. A distracted, hungry, or possibly hungover crew could leave the meeting ready to work together.

His optimism worked because he meant it. When asked about his day, Randy would say he was trying to make it the best day of his life. Guidara initially found that excessive, but Randy’s conviction eventually drew him in. A leader can change the team’s mood instead of letting the team’s mood determine their own.

Randy also built ownership through small demonstrations of trust. He would ask whether Guidara minded if he left early, then toss him the front-door keys. At twenty-two, Guidara was thrilled to be responsible for the restaurant. He worked harder in Randy’s absence because being left in charge made the outcome feel like his responsibility.

The request sounded like a favor to the boss, but it gave Guidara a chance to step up. Randy showed that he trusted his judgment rather than merely telling him so. That trust stayed with Guidara and shaped how he later gave responsibility to others.

Language Creates Culture

Shared phrases make expectations easier to remember, teach, and use during a busy shift. Meyer developed language that staff repeated in emails, pre-meal meetings, and conversations with one another:

• Constant, gentle pressure expressed his version of kaizen, the Japanese idea of continual improvement. Everyone was expected to keep getting a little better.
• Athletic hospitality meant looking for opportunities to improve the guest’s experience. Playing offense meant adding to an already good experience; playing defense meant apologizing for an error and fixing it.
• Be the swan reminded employees to keep the guest’s experience calm and graceful. Like a swan whose feet work hard beneath the water, staff could be working intensely without making guests feel that strain.
• Make the charitable assumption meant starting with a generous explanation for someone’s behavior before judging them.

That last phrase changed how employees approached difficult moments. If someone arrived late, the first response could be to ask whether everything was all right, rather than immediately lecturing them about letting the team down.

The same approach applied to guests. Someone who seemed dismissive might be facing a divorce or a loved one’s illness. Because staff did not know what had happened, difficult behavior could be a reason to offer more care instead of withdrawing it. Practicing that generosity toward others also made it easier to extend it to themselves.

Real stories gave these phrases meaning, and employees were encouraged to contribute their own. That kept the culture open to new acts of care rather than limiting it to a fixed set of examples.

New-employee meetings made the priorities behind the language visible. Meyer devoted at least half the meeting to hearing brief introductions from everyone. People got to know colleagues they could later approach for advice or a favor. More importantly, the head of the company demonstrated that each person deserved his time.

He then explained the phrases and why they mattered. The orientation went beyond procedures: employees could see that caring for one another came first and that they belonged to a shared mission.

Caring openly became normal. Employees enjoyed coming to work and wanted to show their bosses that they were doing their jobs well. Guests left feeling refreshed and cared for, eager to return. The people serving them wanted to return, too.