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Reddit mentions of Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
Sentiment score: 7
Reddit mentions: 16
We found 16 Reddit mentions of Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. Here are the top ones.
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- Harper Perennial
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8 Inches |
Length | 5.31 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 2008 |
Weight | 0.55 Pounds |
Width | 0.76 Inches |
For those of you that aren't familiar, Eleven Madison Park (EMP) was the flagship restaurant of Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and author of Setting the Table. His approach to restaurants focuses on catering to the guest whenever possible. He sold EMP to the the long-time head chef and the general manager a few years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that isn't done only at EMP.
This isn't specifically about increasing efficiency but it's a really good read from probably the most famous restauranteur in the US: Setting The Table - Danny Meyer.
With good service it's seldom necessary to question a guest's honesty. But standing up to an irate customer isn't something you should be expected to know by instinct.
I spent a lot of time in my first years as a manager going over and over in my head how to react to angry or frustrated customers. My bosses told me what I had to do, but they didn't tell me much about how to do it well.
I think ultimately you have to develop a sort of customer service persona that is unfailingly polite, and you put that on when you interact with the public. You might think you already possess and use such a persona, but the unfailingly polite persona is made of a metal stronger than vibranium and it never breaks.
It also helped reading Danny Meyer's Setting the Table.
Setting the Table by Danny Meyer.
Math by the CIA.
The Book of Yields by Francis Lynch.
Read. Read a lot. Reading can help prevent you from making dumb decisions in the future by learning about what problems lie ahead. Owning your own restaurant is not easy. It's really really hard. Celebs, millionaires, etc. fail on the reg trying to open up restaurants. The most you'll ever make working for a restaurant in management is $50k a year unless you have a trick up your sleeve that lands you a sweet gig (sommelier training, chef experience, connections, etc.). You also have to have a serious passion for pleasing people and hospitality. You put in hard hours for someone to be like "ew, this isnt what I want. You're inferior. You're bad at your job. Gross." Seriously, you get more respect in the military. But if you are a sick fuck who wants to try it. Be my guest. I was/am. There are some really cool aspects to it: you meet some crazy people, get to eat delicious food and drink great wine. But a lot of people cant take the stress for the more than a few years and resort to alcoholism or worse. It's difficult to explain restaurant management stress. It's like you're walking in the park and everything is perfect. Birds are singing and shit and then you see your dream girl coming towards you then BAM someone sucker punches you in the dick, she starts laughing at you, you're suddenly naked and everyone joins in the mockery.
Anyways. Read this: Setting The Table and this: Kithchen Confidential, BEFORE you even touch this dick stroking sensation: The Art of The Restaurateur. Read this shit before you lock yourself in to any deals. I'm serious. You'll thank me. Fuck these bus boys need to finish mopping the bar so I can go home and dream about P&Ls.
well to be honest, i havent read many books on the subject, but i have listened to a million podcasts, ted talks, and the like. also my parents were both managers of people and projects, so there were a lot of discussions around the topic of how to make the most of your team, being a leader, etc growing up. also team sports as a youngling were a big influencer. then there is my personal experience and observations of 20+ years in restaurant management working with 20+ restaurants of various types that taught me a few things. (i cringe saying team building cause its kind of a dirty word these days, because of dumb team building excersises, but thats what it is, so)
there are a million resources out there. if you google "team work" "team building" "how to build strong teams" you will be swamped with info.
lets see if i can find some stuff-
i have referred to this list frequently from an article called "the ugly truth about team building" about the dumbness of corporations thinking team building exercises work when really the issue is one of poor leadership. in my experience you will find 95% of the issues amongst management will occur in one of these areas. if these are all addressed, things are probably humming along-
"Here are the principal energy blockers I see in corporations and not-for-profits, startups and government agencies:
• Fuzzy or missing strategy
• Unaddressed conflict
• Role confusion
• Red tape bureaucracy
• Slow processes requiring multiple approvals
• Over-reliance on measurement and quantitative goals
• Little to no conversation about culture, norms, energy, conflict or feelings
• Inexperienced leaders
• Little focus on experimentation, collaboration and innovation, and
• Lack of praise, acknowledgment and information-sharing"
https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/0060742763/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499155744&sr=1-1&keywords=danny+meyer
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=ted+talk+teamwork&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=ted+talk+teamwork&tbm=vid
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
Have you read Setting the Table? If so, what are your thoughts on the advice in there? Seems like while the book was meant for general business, it might be very applicable to your situation.
These books are a must and Will help you even if your slinging pie
Setting the Table
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060742763/ref=mw_dp_sim_ps3?pi=SL500_SY125
The Mere Mortal's Guide to Fine Dining
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0767922034
Windows on the World
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1402757468/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Start with setting the table, it has alot of stuff in it that seems like commonsense, but, if you do it.......you will find that most of it works
"make it nice"
Principles,
Foodservice Organizations,
Culinary Math are all good technical books to know.
Some already mentioned Leadership Lessons, which is a great read. Also try Setting the Table by Danny Meyers for an overall look on running a hospitality business.
If you plan to spend any more than a year or so in the industry, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It's a much better response to your comment than I could come up with.
A huge part of IT work is "customer" service (whether the customer be users, or actual customers of the company). I came from the restaurant industry so that's where I learned that set of chops. The best book on how to treat a customer in my experience is...
Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
Hey - on the CYA thing, it turns out that TriChor should break down into CYA - but I have Zero CYA unless I add it.... I am looking into this.
ON the "Service" side, It is an interesting animal, the key is developing a culture, and in the pool business ( high employee turnover, low margins, cranky homeowners) this would be tough. But culture (why do we do what we do) , and vision (how we do what we do) - is vital to a good ( happy customer) business. Point being, you may not have to shrink, but show your employees that they work for the clients, not you, THE clients pay them.
After the POol business, I was field service engineer for electric systems, then robotics, then sold service for robots and the sold engineering services.... you get the point...
Service businesses are interesting to me. I recommend Settting the Table, by Danny Meyer, a restaurateur turned restaurant mogul... He created Shake Shack etc.
I am sure you will find many parallels.
I've read mostly books about the craft of Bartending but being interested in owning, and operating my own bar and restaurant I gave this book a read and I thought it had a lot of great insight from many industry leaders. Worth a read for sure :) https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/0060742763
> Setting the Table as Danny Meyer
https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/0060742763
Ordered it for my Kindle just now. Will begin reading it today. Thanks!
I work in NYC fine dining and any one of the thousands in my profession who take hospitality seriously would also cringe at this faux pas. The CEO of my company even wrote about how cringy it is in his NYT best selling business book. https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/0060742763 He also opened Eleven Madison Park which is consistently rated the top rated restaurant in the world. Definitely not my unique option. You should consider reading this book if you’re interested in hospitality
Huh? What are you on about?
And look at what he wrote in the tip. Are you really that bad at your job? Buy this book. Read it. Get back to me.
https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/0060742763
EDIT: Fuck, if you have a Kindle I'LL buy it for you.