According to Will Guidara, author of “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than They Expect” about the high-end New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park, it is possible to be cost effective, operationally sound, and customer friendly at the same time. But that doesn’t mean it is easy.
“Unreasonable Hospitality” tells the story of the rise of Eleven Madison Park, but it is not really about the restaurant. This book is about vision, systems, customer experience, management success, and failure.
From a business perspective, the highlights include a New York Times four star restaurant review, three Michelin stars, and finally a ranking as the best restaurant in the world in 2017. It is that ranking - and the team’s pursuit of it - that drives all the rest of the lessons shared in the book.
In 2010, where the book begins, Guidara and his chef and business partner Daniel Humm attend the awards ceremony for the 50 best restaurants in the world for the first time. They came in last, but they walked away with a vision to rank at the top, a journey that would take them 7 years to complete.
After leaving the ceremony, they wrote “We will be Number One in the World” on a napkin. That became their rallying cry.
One of Eleven Madison Park’s differentiators is that they focused just as much on the dining room service as they did the kitchen’s work with the food. That is where I really started to see the transferable lessons from restaurant and hospitality management to procurement and supply chains.
The following lessons were inspired by my reading of the book.
Systems are critical
At Eleven Madison Park, they had processes and systems for everything. That allowed them to manage common issues without disturbing the guests, onboard new team members, and refine the diner experience deliberately over time. Documenting and training team members on how to handle common situations ensured consistency and efficiency while preserving the diner experience.
Know your numbers
The book includes a chapter on Will Guidara’s experience in a corporate setting, as an assistant purchaser and controller for Restaurant Associates, now part of Compass Group. This role taught him to manage the costs associated with running a restaurant, and to understand how they connect to what is happening in the kitchen and dining room. This experience would be critical in 2008 when the recession created challenges for the restaurant industry.
Follow the 95/5 Rule
While Guidara was managing a restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art, he had the opportunity to put a gelato cart out in the sculpture garden. He picked out amazing little blue spoons made in Italy that he describes as “preposterously, heartbreakingly expensive.” By efficiently managing 95 percent of his spend, he created a 5 percent fund for discretionary spending that was worth it “because that last 5 percent has an outsize impact on the guest experience, it’s some of the smartest money you’ll ever spend.”
Go above and beyond
One early and formative story shared in the book is about a diner trying to finish his upscale meal even though he was parked in a metered spot. A member of the restaurant staff was assigned to feed the meter so he could enjoy the end of his meal. That simple, inexpensive gesture made all the difference and went a long way towards establishing the restaurant’s reputation for exceptional customer experiences later on.
Excellence is the exception, not the rule
Guidara writes that excellence is the culmination of thousands of details executed perfectly - while also understanding that mistakes will happen. Excellence is hard, it is uncomfortable, and most people won’t have what it takes. Ironically, Guidara and his team were so dedicated to excellence that they pushed themselves too far at one point. Know when it is time to make a change… choosing to slow down and get it right instead of spinning up.
Take the good with the bad
Eleven Madison Park received a number of bad reviews over the years. They were painful for the team to read, even if they had earned them, and so managing those reviews and the emotions that went with them was key to Guidara’s success as a manager and as a restaurant operator. He made a point of taking the criticism and turning it into something positive, recognizing when changes needed to be made or coming up with new solutions to problems they hadn’t recognized.
Never Give Up
In 2008, the team at Eleven Madison park had to pivot to handle the recession… something that hit them particularly hard given how expensive dining there was, and the effect of corporate cutbacks on New York City. Guidara leaned back on his time in procurement to cut where possible without affecting customers, offering affordable lunches even though traditionally that would have been ‘beneath’ them. The decision had an unexpected positive effect - those diners would go on to become some of his most loyal when the economy recovered.
