Deborah > Deborah's Quotes

“Her recipe for the perfect waitress was, “two parts Walter Cronkite to one part Mae West, carefully blended with a cup of Mikhail Baryshnikov and a liberal sprinkling of Mother Teresa.”
― Danny Meyer

“I have always felt that solo guests pay us the ultimate compliment by joining us for a meal. Their visit has no ulterior motive (it involves no business, romance, or socializing). These guests simply want to do something nice for themselves, chez nous. Why wouldn’t we reward that?”
― Danny Meyer

“Policies are nothing more than guidelines to be broken for the benefit of our guests. We’re here to give the guests what they want, period.”
― Danny Meyer

“Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It”
― Danny Meyer

“For judges of character, there is no such thing as the color gray.”
― Danny Meyer

“The excellence reflex is a natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better.

The excellence reflex is rooted in instinct and upbringing, and then constantly honed through awareness, caring and practice.

The overarching concern to do the right thing well is something we can't train for. Either it's there or it isn't.”
― Danny Meyer

“Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.”
― Danny Meyer

“Make new mistakes every day. Don’t waste time repeating the old ones.”
― Danny Meyer

“My appreciation of the power of hospitality and my desire to harness it have been the greatest contributors to whatever success my restaurants and businesses have had. I’ve learned how crucially important it is to put hospitality to work, first for the people who work for me and subsequently for all the other people and stakeholders who are in any way affected by our business—in descending order, our guests, community, suppliers, and investors. I call this way of setting priorities “enlightened hospitality.” It stands some more traditional business approaches on their head, but it’s the foundation of every business decision and every success we’ve had.”
― Danny Meyer