Danny Meyer Biography

Daniel "Danny" Meyer (born March 14, 1958) is a New York City restaurateur and the Chief Executive Officer of the Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG).

Background and early career

Meyer was born and raised in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis, where he attended John Burroughs School. Meyer attended Camp Nebagmon for boys in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin as a kid. Meyer worked for his father as a tour guide in Rome during college, and then returned to Rome to study international politics. After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1980 with a degree in political science, Meyer worked in Chicago as Cook County Field Director for John Anderson's 1980 independent presidential campaign. Meyer later gained his first restaurant experience in 1984 as an assistant manager at Pesca, an Italian seafood restaurant in the Flatiron District of New York City. He then returned to Europe to study cooking as a culinary stagiaire in both Italy and Bordeaux.

Career

In 1985, at age 27, Meyer opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe. In order to make it successful, Danny Meyer focused on customer satisfaction.

Meyer"?s restaurants and other businesses include: Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 at MoMA, Maialino, Untitled at the Whitney Museum, Union Square Events, and Hospitality Quotient. Union Square Events, USHG's catering division, operates several concessions at major sports facilities (Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, El Verano Taqueria, and Box Frites) including the Mets Citi Field, Saratoga Race Course, and Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.

In late 2011, USHG opened North End Grill and a second location of Blue Smoke, both in Battery Park City. In 2011, the Union Square Hospitality group sold Eleven Madison Park to its chef Daniel Humm and front-of-house director Will Guidara.

Events

USHG also founded and continues to organize the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in NYC, which takes place in Madison Square Park and features regionally diverse barbecue from visiting pitmasters. The event benefits the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Writings

Meyer co-authored The Union Square Cafe Cookbook (HarperCollins, 1994) with his business partner, Chef Michael Romano. The book earned the IACP Julia Child Award for the best new cookbook by a first-time author, and was followed up with the highly acclaimed Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe (HarperCollins, 2001). Meyer also authored the New York Times bestseller Setting the Table (HarperCollins, 2006), which examines the power of hospitality in restaurants, business, and life. In May 2009, Meyer's restaurants released a cocktail cookbook, Mix Shake Stir (Little, Brown) featuring 140 recipes, along with tips, anecdotes and photography.

Community activism

Meyer has served on the boards of Share Our Strength and City Harvest. In addition, he served as Co-Chair of the Union Square Partnership for 5 years and as an executive committee member for NYC & Co and the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Ratings and reviews

Four of USHG"?s restaurants have earned three stars from The New York Times and Eleven Madison Park was upgraded to four stars in 2009. Three of the five "Most Popular"? restaurants in the 2011 New York Zagat Survey are part of USHG, including Union Square Cafe, which has held the #1 spot nine times. Eleven Madison Park held three Michelin Stars, The Modern earned its second Michelin Star in 2015 and Gramercy Tavern holds one Michelin Star and Eleven Madison Park was designated Grand Chef Relais & Chateaux in 2008 and named one of S. Pellegrino"?s "50 Best Restaurants"? in 2010 and 2011.

Awards

Meyer and USHG have won 28 James Beard Foundation Awards.

• 2013 Pennsylvania State University School of Hospitality Management Conti Professor, Fall Semester
• 2011 NYU Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City
• 2010 Cooper Union Urban Citizenship Award
• 2005 James Beard Foundation Restaurateur of the Year Award
• 2005 Readers Digest Best Restaurateur
• 1999 Bon Appetit Best Restaurateur in America
• 1999 New York Magazine New Yorkers of 1999
• 1996 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award
• 1992 Food & Wine Magazine Top 25 Restaurants in America

Bibliography

• Setting the Table : The Power of Hospitality in Restaurants, Business, and Life
• The Union Square Caf Cookbook
• Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe
• Mix Shake Stir

Book Reviews

• The Union Square Caf Cookbook was described in the New York Journal of Books as ". . . expertly adapted for home use and offers many dishes worth trying and adding to your repertoire."

Personal life

In 1988, Meyer married Audrey Rayelyn Heffernan in an interfaith Roman Catholic and Jewish service at Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan.