Meyer: Shake Shack Succeeded by Bringing Fine Dining Talent to Fast Food
Danny Meyer · #115 Danny Meyer: Hospitality and Humanity · Jul 13, 2021 · at 39:36
Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack, explains why the 'fine casual' model works better when started by fine-dining veterans.
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“And I think that is partially why Shake Shack has succeeded is that it's a fine dining version of a fast food restaurant. I call the category fine casual because I don't know too many situations where you've had a mashup of all these people who started Shake Shack came from restaurants like Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern and The Modern and they learned systems necessary to scale A business, which is very different than people who come from the quick serve industry, who have those systems down pat, who are then trying to learn how to retrofit philosophies and choices that a full service restaurant makes in terms of site location, design, hiring, culinary technique, sourcing, community relations, all those kinds of things.”
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