Danny Meyer | |
|---|---|
 Meyer in 2010 | |
| Born | March 14, 1958 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Education | Trinity College, Hartford |
| Occupation | Restaurateur |
| Spouse | Audrey Rayelyn Heffernan |
| Website | ushg |
Daniel Meyer (born March 14, 1958) is a New York City restaurateur and the founder and executive chairman of the Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG).
Meyer was born and raised in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis, Missouri [1] the son of Roxanne (née Harris) and Morton L. Meyer. [2] His father was the president of a travel, hospitality and real estate company in St. Louis. [2] His grandfather was Chicago businessman and philanthropist, Irving B. Harris. [2]
He attended John Burroughs School [2] and as child, Meyer attended Camp Nebagamon for boys in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. During college, Meyer worked for his father as a tour guide in Rome and then returned there to study international politics. Meyer was a Brother of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity while at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Trinity in 1980 with a degree in political science, [3] Meyer worked in Chicago as Cook County field director for John Anderson's 1980 independent presidential campaign.
Meyer gained his first restaurant experience in 1984 as an assistant manager at Pesca, an Italian seafood restaurant in the Flatiron District of New York City. He then returned to Europe to study cooking as a culinary stagiaire in Italy and Bordeaux, France. [4]
In 1985, at age 27, Meyer opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe. [5] Meyer's other restaurants and businesses include Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, Daily Provisions, Ci Siamo, The Modern, Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 at MoMA, Maialino (formerly at the Gramercy Park Hotel), Untitled at the North End Grill, Marta, Porchlight, GreenRiver, Union Square Events, and Hospitality Quotient. [6] Union Square Events, USHG's catering division, operates several concessions at major sports facilities including Citi Field, Saratoga Race Course, and Nationals Park. [7]
In 2010, Meyer suffered his first restaurant closure, Tabla. In a statement, Meyer blamed the closure on the specificity of the Indian cuisine offered by the restaurant. [8] That same year, Meyer participated in a documentary called "The Restaurateur". [9] [10]
In late 2011, Union Square Hospitality group sold Eleven Madison Park to its chef Daniel Humm and front-of-house director Will Guidara. [11] In 2018, North End Grill closed. [12]
In 2015, Meyer announced that he would eliminate tipping at all of his restaurants. [13] The move increased prices by approximately 21 percent and led to large portions of his staff leaving the company. [14]
As COVID-19 swept through the United States, Meyer shuttered all his restaurants, criticized other businesses for opening, and stated that he did not expect to offer full service until a vaccine was available. [15] [16] In a May 1 Vanity Fair podcast, Meyer explained that taking a Paycheck Protection Program loan, intended to help small businesses, "could be the most irresponsible thing in the world for a restaurant to do." [17] In July, it emerged that twelve separate Meyer restaurants received loans. Meyer's company, Union Square Hospitality Group, received between $11.4 and $27 million in PPP loans. [17] Shake Shack earlier claimed to return its PPP assistance following media attention." [18]
Meyer co-wrote The Union Square Cafe Cookbook (HarperCollins, 1994) with his business partner, Chef Michael Romano. The book earned the IACP Julia Child Award for the best new cookbook by a first-time author, and was followed up with the highly acclaimed Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe (HarperCollins, 2001). Meyer also wrote The New York Times bestseller Setting the Table (HarperCollins, 2006), which examines the power of hospitality in restaurants, business, and life. In May 2009, Meyer's restaurants released a cocktail cookbook, Mix Shake Stir (Little, Brown) featuring 140 recipes, along with tips, anecdotes and photography. [19]
Meyer has served on the boards of Share Our Strength and City Harvest. [20] In addition, he served as Co-Chair of the Union Square Partnership for five years, [21] and as an executive committee member for NYC & Co and the Madison Square Park Conservancy. [22]
Four of USHG's restaurants have earned three stars from The New York Times ; Eleven Madison Park was upgraded to four stars in 2009. USHG's restaurants routinely appear among the Most Popular in New York City according to the Zagat guide, including Union Square Cafe, which has held the #1 spot nine times. [23] Eleven Madison Park held three Michelin Stars, The Modern earned its second Michelin Star in 2015, Gramercy Tavern holds one Michelin Star, [24] and GreenRiver was awarded one Michelin Star in 2016. In 2016, The Modern was awarded a Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2016.
Meyer and USHG have won 28 James Beard Foundation Awards. [25] [ failed verification ]
Meyer was interviewed by Reid Hoffman on the Masters of Scale podcast, where he talked about how he ignored conventional wisdom to revolutionize the restaurant industry. [30] He appeared on The Ringer's House of Carbs Podcast, where he presented his Washington D.C. establishment "Maialino Mare" and talked about his career in hospitality. [31] Danny Meyer most recently appeared on The Knowledge Project Podcast to discuss the intersection between hospitality and humanity, and why we’re all invested in the hospitality business. [32] He talked food, love and business on the Gary Vee Audio Experience Podcast. [33]
In 1988, Meyer married Audrey Rayelyn Heffernan in an interfaith Roman Catholic and Jewish service at Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan. [35]
Mario Francesco Batali is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut, including Babbo in New York City, which received a Michelin star for several years. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, on shows such as Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site Eater revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.
Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian chef and restaurateur.
Thomas Patrick Colicchio is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Crafted Hospitality, which includes Craft, Temple Court (NYC), Craftsteak and Small Batch restaurants. Colicchio is the recipient of five James Beard Foundation Awards for cooking accomplishments.
Daniel Boulud is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai. He is best known for his eponymous restaurant Daniel, opened in New York City in 1993, which currently holds two Michelin stars.
Shake Shack is an American fast casual restaurant chain based in New York City. It started out as a hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park in 2001, and its popularity steadily grew. In 2004, it received a permit to open a permanent kiosk within the park, expanding its menu from New York–style hot dogs to one with hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and its namesake milkshakes.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awards are presented at a dinner in New York City; the chef and restaurant awards were also presented in New York until 2015, when the foundation's annual gala moved to Chicago. Chicago will continue to host the Awards until 2027.
Starr Restaurants, stylized as STARR Restaurants, is a restaurant group headed by founder and CEO Stephen Starr, with restaurants in Philadelphia, New York City, Washington D.C., South Florida, and Paris, France.
Union Square Cafe is an American restaurant featuring New American cuisine with Italian influences, located at 101 E 19th St, in the Union Square neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. It is owned by the Union Square Hospitality Group.
Eleven Madison Park is a fine dining restaurant located inside the Metropolitan Life North Building at 11 Madison Avenue in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City. Owned by Daniel Humm Hospitality, it has held 3 Michelin stars since 2012, and was ranked first among The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2017.
Daniel Humm is a Swiss plant-based chef and owner of Daniel Humm Hospitality, the New York-based hospitality group behind the highly acclaimed Eleven Madison Park, Clemente Bar, and direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand Eleven Madison Home. In September 2024, he was appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for food education due to his advocacy for sustainable food systems.
Tanya Holland is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, podcast host, writer, and cookbook author. She is known as an expert of soul food. Holland is an alumna of Bravo TV's Top Chef, where she competed on the 15th season. She was the owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California, which received national recognition and multiple Michelin Bib Gourmand awards.
Gramercy Tavern is a New American restaurant located at 42 East 20th Street, in the Flatiron District in Manhattan, New York City.
William Guidara is an American restaurateur based in New York City. Along with chef Daniel Humm, Guidara co-owned the Make It Nice hospitality group, established in 2011, which owns and operates Eleven Madison Park, NoMad New York, NoMad Los Angeles, NoMad Las Vegas, NoMad Bar and Made Nice.
Michael Anthony is an American chef.
Marlon Abela is a Lebanese-British restaurateur, businessman and columnist. He is the founder and chairman of the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation (MARC), a privately owned international hospitality company based in Mayfair, London.
GreenRiver was an American restaurant and cocktail bar located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It was a collaborative effort between Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group and hospitality group Best Bar in the World. The partnership also produced a smaller bar, Annex. The restaurant highlighted the Irish experience in Chicago, with cocktails named for famous Irish citizens, including Mary Harris Jones and Edward O'Hare.
The NoMad was an integrated hotel and restaurant owned by the Sydell Group and located in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The restaurant of the same name was conceived by chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara of nearby Eleven Madison Park. The hotel was sometimes referred to as NoMad New York to differentiate from its sister locations in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The building is a contributing property to the Madison Square North Historic District, a New York City Landmark.
Rethink Food NYC Inc, commonly called Rethink Food or just Rethink, is a non-profit organization based in New York City. The organization was founded to address hunger in the United States by contributing to a sustainable and equitable food system. Rethink collects excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, and corporate kitchens to provide nutritious meals for people living without food security at low or no-cost. The organization expanded its operations in March 2020 to meet growing food demands amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Simon Kim is an American restaurateur who owns and operates COTE Korean Steakhouse, a restaurant with locations in New York, Miami and Singapore. COTE New York has received a star from the Michelin Guide each year since opening in 2017. Kim's original “Korean Steakhouse” concept combines Korean barbecue with an American steakhouse experience and was inspired by his dual nationalities. Crain’s New York named Kim as one of their “40 Under 40” business leaders in 2019. In 2021, the National Restaurant Association, which represents 1 million restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of 15.6 million employees, elected Kim to serve on their board.
Akhtar Nawab is an American chef and restaurateur. After graduating from culinary school, Nawab moved to New York in 1998 and worked under chef Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern for several years. He was part of the opening staff of Colicchio's restaurant Craft, and in 2002 helped open Craftbar, later serving as executive chef. His first restaurant, Elettaria, closed in 2009 during the global financial crisis. Since then he has made a shift to working mainly in Mexican cuisine and has opened several restaurants.
I grew up in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis. Our idea of Judaism was no Bar mitzvahs and a Christmas tree that had a skirt at the bottom embroidered with the names of my grandparents
Mr. Meyer, a son of Roxanne Harris Frank of Ladue, Mo., and Morton L. Meyer of Clayton, Mo., graduated from the John Burroughs School and Trinity College in Hartford. . His grandfather Irving B. Harris, of Chicago, is chairman of the Pittway Corporation, a diversified concern.
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