The Exchanges

Q What is your typical day? Like, like, what time does it start here, and then what time do you kind of get out of here, and then do you have to wind down when you get home, or is it?

A Um, yeah, I mean, my, my days have changed a little bit. Uh, I now live in the suburbs, so the commute has kind of helped with the, the winding down. Um, I'm a lot better today at kind of turning off. Um, I start somewhere between 11 and 12, depending on what's going on, um, work all day, and then again, depending on how crazy it is, I'll be here typically to about 11, sometimes on the weekends a little bit later. Um, I try and take two days off, and typically I try and take Saturday, Sunday off, but, um, sort of find myself, uh, in between, uh, a five day and a six day, and, and, you know, working Saturdays, and then Uh, the next week, taking the two days off. Um, so I finish here typically around 11, 12, and then it's about 45 minutes, hour commute home, so I wind down, um, and then get home, do some emails, kind of review things from the day, uh, go to bed, wake up around six 30, and do some more emails, go to the gym, then come here.

AI assessment note: “I start somewhere between 11 and 12... typically to about 11”

Q Talk to me about Dan, the boss in terms of like how you, the end of the night, something didn't go well. You got to debrief, you got to fix it because you don't want it to be a Repetitive problems. How do you handle that?

A Um, we do a couple different things. I mean, for, for one, um, for, for one, we try and, uh, communicate, um, through a lineup at the end of the night, you know, hey, these things didn't go right. Um, whether it becomes one-on-one with one specific person, but most of the time it's a team thing. Um, and then we do a lot, um, sort of on the back end, um, With all the managers with recaps so that the next morning, whoever's opening that wasn't here knows that the three things that were significant problems are all picked up first thing in the morning. So seven 38 o'clock in the morning, those things are going to be addressed. So hopefully come five o'clock the next day, whatever that issue was is not an issue again today. You know, we really are trying to do a lot of that. Ultimately, you know, we, we want to get better. We want to smooth things out, but I can tell you that There, there is a lot less today of the, you know, kicking and screaming and, and throwing things because something didn't go right. Like nothing's really worth it.

AI assessment note: “we try and, uh, communicate, um, through a lineup at the end of the night”

Q What was that like? I mean, there's such a persona for Danny Meyer that...

A I mean, he's, he's an amazing person. Truly amazing. Um, and I, I was very fortunate, um, that when I started at Union Square Cafe, uh, I think Gramercy Tavern had opened two years prior, maybe somewhere around there, not even. Um, so he was still very much, you know, involved in, in Union Square Cafe. Uh, Paul Bowles Bevan, who was his managing partner, was, I mean, really one of the best people I've ever met in my life, and, and really, Grasped hospitality from, from the customer side to the, to the employee side, um, really was just a wonderful person to work with. And so I was at this, you know, forefront of Danny and Paul and even Mike Romano and all these people that really, um, believed it, practiced it and, and helped me experience it. Um, so.

AI assessment note: “he's an amazing person. Truly amazing. Um, and I, I was very fortunate”

Q What was the scariest moment that you've had since opening Loring Place? The moment when you thought you were gonna fail, or the world seemed to be just pushing it on you, and how did you recover from that?

A I mean, I don't know if anything I would say was scary or, or felt failure. I think, um, the hardest thing is the, the review process. Um, cause part of you wants to just say, I'm, I'm doing what I believe in and screw everybody else. And then the other part of you says, okay, well, these guys unfortunately matter, right? People are paying attention to them. And it becomes kind of this struggle of, well, we're always trying to be perfect, whether you're a viewer or not. Because we don't necessarily know who it is. We're always trying to be perfect, and we always want the service to be right, and the food to be right, so it doesn't matter. And, and then at that same token, this feeling of, okay, you know, you're, you're getting judged. It would be like, it would be like, um, going to take your SATs, and your score is only based on five questions that you don't know about. Like, you take a, a test with, I don't know, 200 questions in it, and only five of them mattered, but you don't know which five they are. So, for years, like, you know, we worked so hard through this process of reviews. I mean, it was, I think, almost five months. Changed the menu multiple times. I mean, really, we're working hard at fine-tuning everything, and ultimately, the reviews were based on a handful of dishes. And, Uh, you know, we've, we've gotten good reviews, and I can't complain about that, but the…

AI assessment note: “I don't know if anything I would say was scary... the hardest thing is the review process”

Q Is that because the team's stable across years or?

A I, I think, I think certainly I've matured. I think the people around me have matured. I think, um, I have more on the line today than I ever have, but, uh, so you'd think that it'd be the opposite. I'd be even more high strung about it. Um, I think ultimately, you know, We've all started to realize that, um, it's, it's just not the way to go. Uh, and you know, that, that adage of you get more bees with honey than vinegar, it's really the same sort of thing. I mean, um, being, being in a pissy mood is not going to say get anybody anywhere. Do a lot of coaching. We spend a lot of time coaching people and sitting people down and, and talking about performance. And I think that sends a serious message that, uh, you know, this isn't just a We're not, we're not just gonna yell at you and, and throw some at you. We're gonna take the time, we're gonna sit down, we're gonna tell you what's going on. Here are things you need to improve on. Here are things that I'm sorry, like I'm,, I'm not even gonna mention again.

AI assessment note: “I think certainly I've matured. I think the people around me have matured.”

Q What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about chefs?

A I don't know. I, I think, uh, There's probably a bunch out there today. Obviously, one is that, that we all eat very well. I think, uh, most of us on our days off don't really want to do too much cooking. Um, I think because of the, um, Top Chef, Gordon Ramsay, all those kind of things, I think the perceptions that we all scream and curse and throw things, I mean, do I curse? Yes. I, I try not to curse in general. I try not to curse around my kids, but, um, Once in a while, I call them a smartass, and, and, you know, that sends a message to them, and it's sort of the same thing here. Yeah. Again, it's fairly black and white in terms of the expectation, and so when we have to look in between the lines, it's, it's somewhat acceptable in my book to, to act a little differently, if that makes sense. Um, I think the other, I don't know if it's a misperception, but again, I think those, those books and, um, that sort of, like, mentality is that, you know, we're all partying rock stars, and again, I don't think that's not necessarily the case. I think there's plenty of people that are doing that, but I think there's plenty of us that, you know, after work, we're not going out and drinking until four o'clock in the morning, and we're just going home and going to bed and waking up and doing it all again the next day. But, um.

AI assessment note: “perceptions that we all scream and curse and throw things”