Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Danny announced he was opening a new restaurant called Blue Smoke, and he asked Guidara to be the assistant general manager. At the time, Guidara considered this to be his dream job. However, when he spoke on the phone with his father to ask for his advice, Guidara’s father recommended he turn down the offer. He explained to Guidara the concept of restaurant-smart versus corporate-smart companies: In restaurant-smart companies, the team has more freedom and creative license: They act flexibly, and can focus more on hospitality and connecting with customers, though they tend to lack corporate oversight and established business systems. On the other hand, corporate-smart companies have established rules and systems in place: They are usually more profitable than restaurant-smart companies, but their rules can make the team feel restricted, and this can negatively affect the customer experience.

Guidara’s father worried that if Guidara stayed with Danny’s restaurant group, he would only learn one type of way of doing business: the restaurant-smart way. He encouraged Guidara to come work for his company, Restaurant Associates, which was corporate-smart, so that Guidara could gain a well-rounded education.

Guidara took his father’s advice, and while at Restaurant Associates, he split his time, spending the morning assisting RA’s purchaser and the afternoon assisting the company’s controller. Because of this, Guidara gained on-the-ground experience and corporate experience simultaneously, working firsthand with food deliveries in the morning and studying spreadsheets and finances in the afternoon.

One day, the controller realized that lobster prices were incredibly high and that one of their restaurants was selling a lot of lobster. He made a quick call to the restaurant and told the chef to pull it off the menu. The chef was relieved because his bonus and his job security were tied to his food costs. Through this experience, Guidara saw that control and structure didn’t need to stifle creativity, and that it could, in fact, enhance it. Relieved of the pressure of rising food costs, that chef could return to focusing on his craft.

Nine months after starting work at RA, Guidara was promoted to assistant general manager and controller of a restaurant called Nick + Stef’s. While there, he witnessed the other end of the creativity-control spectrum, realizing that there were indeed times in which too much control could stifle creativity. One time, he tried to move a vase on the bar to give the bartender a better view of customers, but he was told he wasn’t allowed to because it had not been approved by the corporate design department.

Guidara also realized that there were times in which he could balance creativity and control. For instance, as the manager of the Museum of Modern Art’s café, he realized that they were wasting a lot of grab-and-go sandwiches at the end of the day. At the same time, he didn’t want to understock the shelves because it would look unappealing. He compromised by having the staff only partially stock the shelves in the last hour of each day to save on costs, but he enhanced the customer experience with the option of having sandwiches custom-made during that hour.

Guidara introduces a concept he calls the 95/5 rule: If one is careful and intentional about spending 95% of their budget, the last 5% can be used on seemingly frivolous or exciting things. One example was the gelato cart at MoMA: When Guidara took charge of it, he had his heart set on obtaining fancy, expensive gelato spoons from Italy. Even though it seemed, at the time, like a small and overpriced detail, the spoons were so beautiful that he felt they would enhance the guests’ experience; because he had tightly budgeted the rest of the project, he could splurge on spoons. He did so, and the gelato cart was a success—the guests not only loved the gelato, but they were delighted with the intricate and well-crafted spoons. Guidara later carried over the 95/5 rule to his time at EMP.

The summer after high school graduation, Guidara worked as a busboy at the renowned restaurant Spago. One day, he opened a cabinet and a stack of dishes fell out and crashed on the floor of the dining room. The chef flew out of the kitchen and screamed at him in front of all the guests. This humiliating experience left the impression on Guidara that the chef did not respect the dining room staff.

Guidara felt that that a chef’s role was only one piece of the puzzle that made a restaurant great. He knew that magic was created through the combination of the restaurant’s atmosphere, the kitchen staff, and the dining staff. However, Guidara the 1980s ushered in the era of the celebrity chef, introducing a new wave of innovative fine dining, though one in which hospitality was not valued. Coming up during this era, Guidara decided early on in his career that he did not want to work in fine dining because he cared too much about hospitality.

In 2006, Danny decided to hire a new chef for Eleven Madison Park, and he settled on the ambitious and accomplished 29-year-old Daniel Humm. Daniel asked that Danny hire a new GM as well, and suggested Guidara for the job.

Guidara was hesitant, but he agreed to work as the General Manager of EMP for one year. He met with Daniel over dinner and drinks and they talked about their similarities and differences. Guidara told Daniel that he didn’t want to work with him unless Daniel viewed it as a true partnership. They discovered that they had both suffered in their previous jobs from a lack of communication between the kitchen and dining staff. They agreed they would not replicate these divisions at EMP, deciding to run the restaurant with an equal emphasis on food and service.