Serving up nine slices of Unreasonable Hospitality
When you are super-served, the memory stays with you.
Last autumn, I was meeting Helen, a good friend of mine in Kaffeine on Eastcastle Street, central London. I’d just been served my long black when I received a text - Helen said she was in Kaffeine, where was I? It transpired she was at the other Kaffeine. Luckily, it was just around the corner, so I asked the barista if I could switch my coffee to a take-out cup.
My barista happened to be Peter, the owner. I have a better idea, he said, and wrote the words ‘long black from Peter’ on a piece of paper. Take this, he said, and give it to Hebe behind the counter at the other shop. I dashed to the other Kaffeine and on arrival I gave Hebe the piece of paper. She brought me over my new coffee. Brilliant. I doubt Starbucks would have done that!
I absolutely loved that (watch the video below that I recorded that morning).
The reason the cafe was a few hundred yards away was down to uber-restaurateur Danny Meyer. Peter had read Danny’s advice - that you should open your second outlet within walking distance of your first, which may have seemed contrary.
And I think Will Guidara, the author of Unreasonable Hospitality, would have liked this super-serving story too. He’s got a connection with Danny - Danny was initially Will’s mentor and boss, before Will bought out one of his restaurants.
It’s the kind of example you might find in Will’s book ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’: a cafe solves a customer headache so simply, but also in a very human way. And it’s classy.
Hospitality is about how we make others feel. And how you make people feel is relevant to all businesses and brands, regardless of the industry. Especially where we work in abundant markets, where our products and services look very similar, how you make people feel is a way to stand out. We can compete on that. It’s what I’ve always aimed to do since I started my own business.
Will’s book is all about how he has strived to make people feel. The founder of the hospitality company Thank You, he was formerly co-owner of the legendary NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park. The pages are full of not only insights into the tips and tricks he deployed at ‘EMP,’ it’s also a masterclass in how to be unreasonable - rather than just reasonable - in hospitality.
Hospitality, Will explains, starts with intention. “Intention means every decision from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane matters.” To do something with intentionality means to do it thoughtfully with clear purpose, and an eye on the desired result. His approach worked, and then some - Eleven Madison Park was once voted the best restaurant in the world!
Here are nine things that stood out from reading his book:
Hire on kindness. When hiring Will says to look for the kind of person who runs after a stranger on the street to return a dropped scarf. People who would generally do things out of kindness are going to naturally be good at looking after someone else.
Details matter. As someone who loves his coffee, I can relate to this: many restaurants have amazing food but then something goes seriously wrong when it comes to coffee. Why would a $1,000 meal, Will asks, end with an average coffee when we can often have a glorious single origin espresso from a kerbside cafe on the way to work. The problem was that coffee traditionally falls within the remit of the beverage manager. And their main focus is on wine. It’s no wonder coffee got overlooked. At Eleven Madison Park they promoted a coffee aficionado to be responsible for it, introducing Chemex style coffee that could be brewed at the table.
Create moments of magic. There are two times during a restaurant experience where the guest is more sensitive to any delay: the start and the end of the meal. When you sit down you want your water straight away. At EMP they developed a sign language system. It meant the head waiter (the captain) could let the server know the preferred water choice while s/he was still chatting through the menu. The water would then appear at the table before the captain had finished their interaction.
Don’t forget the last inch. At EMP there was an obsession with what Will calls the 1 inch rule: a reminder to not lose focus on the last second when you present the plates. The 1 inch rule was both a literal instruction to put the plates down gently and a metaphorical one. It reminded the server to stay present and follow through all the way to that last inch, no matter what else might be going on.
Being right is irrelevant. There’s a story where a customer orders a steak, ordered medium-rare. When it arrives, the customer says it’s not right. The steak is cooked to perfection. But Will channels Danny Meyer, who says whether the customer is right is irrelevant. Instead of explaining to the customer that they’ve been served a correct medium-rare steak, the customer receives an apology. A fresh steak cooked just the way it’s wanted.
Act ‘as if.’ Will describes a period of time - nearly twelve months - when the restaurant is awaiting the return of the legendary NYT critic, Frank Bruni. Previously he’d been and awarded them 3 stars. They wanted 4. For nearly a year, the team aimed for perfection every night that Frank Bruni wasn’t in the restaurant. At each sitting they designated one table as ‘the critic of the night’ and performed on the guests on that table a dress rehearsal. They acted ‘as-if’ every night. It was an unreasonable routine. “The critic in our restaurant wasn’t real, but it doesn’t have to be real to work.” Finally, Frank returned. They received their coveted 4 stars. They hadn’t just operated at this level for the critic on one-night only, but for every night, nearly 364 times. Wow.
Be in the business of human connection. It wasn’t the business of running an extraordinary restaurant they were in, but that of human connection. For example they’d go to great lengths to research the guests before their reservations. The Maitre d’ would have a cheat sheet of photographs they’d found online of their guests. It meant they knew who you were before you’d announced your name, and they’d greet you with a big ‘Welcome to Eleven Madison Park Ian Sanders!’. Will writes, “I never tired of seeing the reaction on peoples faces when they experience this for the first time.” Another magic trick.
Stories pass the spark. At EMP, the stories of going above and beyond for the customer became legendary, and Will has plenty of over-the-top examples to share. These stories grab us: these experiences and moments get circulated inside - and outside - the restaurant’s four walls. Such story sharing helped other members of the team understand the possibilities of creating these stand-out moments. And for the wider world, word-of-mouth is priceless.
Improvise! The restaurant created a team of ‘Dreamweavers’ - people dedicated to super serving customers. They went to incredible lengths, often involving a lot of money, to create and deliver memorable magical experiences. Much of this relied on eavesdropping on a table, and responding to something overheard. It’s what Will describes as ‘improvisational hospitality.’ Fans of TV show The Bear will know the scene in the ‘Forks’ episode, set in a high dining restaurant, regarding guests on vacation who regret not having a Chicago deep pan pizza. It’s a scene inspired by a real life EMP story. One night Will overhears four guests saying it was their last evening in NYC. They’d been everywhere but were disappointed they hadn’t eaten a famous NYC hotdog. Right then, Will rushes out to a cart on the street and brings a hotdog back to the kitchen. The chef cuts it into four and plates it up as if it were a fine dining dish. It’s taken out to the guests who are completely overcome. It’s my favourite story about going the extra mile. Will observes it was ‘proof that we didn’t have to go to extraordinary lengths to blow someone’s mind. All we had to do was pay attention.’
“We didn’t have to go to extraordinary lengths to blow someone’s mind.
All we had to do was pay attention.”
Super-serving is not about spending loads of money to deliver exclusive experiences. Like the story of Peter at Kaffeine and his slip of paper - unreasonable memorable hospitality can cost nothing! And it’s available to all of us…