• “I was fascinated to discover that the household across the street used Maull's, the thin, tangy classic St. Louis barbecue sauce, whereas my family was in the more mainstream Open Pit camp, using it as a base to be doctored with other ingredients. I learned that various brands of peanut butter tasted better with certain brands of jelly. I observed that some families chose Heinz ketchup, while others used Hunt's or Brooks. I got to know and cared about the differences in the flavors of these ketchups… Whether the subject is Indian spices, new American cuisine, the neighborhood bistro, barbecue, luxe dining, a big-league jazz club, the traditional museum cafeteria, or hamburgers and milkshakes, my passion is always to explore the object of my interest in depth, and then to combine the best of what I've found with something unexpected to create a fresh context. I then look at the result and ask myself and my colleagues what it would take to do this even better. Creating restaurants or even recipes is like composing music: there are only so many notes in the scale from which all melodies and harmonies are created. The trick is to put those notes together in a way not heard before.” - intro
• He is the real-life Chef Ratatouille - went into the restaurant business which is considered tough/shitty/lots of failures and came out as an all-time great because of his obsession to hospitality

Hospitality Exists When You Believe the Other Person is On Your Side

• “Where does my hunger for good food served with thoughtful care and consistency come from? Why am I so energized by seeking to uncover the best? The answer is my family, though its various influences on me have often been at odds.” → Danny Meyer spent his early life on trips to France, where he learned the power of hospitality: “I was first immersed in the unaffected, timeless culture of gracious hospitality represented by European restaurateurs and innkeepers. In France, we usually stayed in low-key, family-run inns where the welcome felt loving and the gastronomy was exceptional. Those trips left a lasting impression. The hug that came with the food made it taste even better! That realization would gradually evolve into my own well-defined business strategy the core of which is hospitality, or being on the guests' side.”
• “Hospitality is the foundation of my business philosophy. Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any business transaction. Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions- for and to - express it all.” (win-win mentality)

His Father is Both his Hero and the Ultimate Warning

• Meyer was inspired at a young age by his father, who started the tour company Open Road Tours and was known for his unique taste: “Dad exulted in planning these driving tours of the countryside; he'd note exactly where travelers would stumble upon a certain vineyard, a worthwhile museum, or a particularly good bistro. His clients loved his attention to detail, his business thrived and I was bursting with pride when I told people my dad had become president of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), an important trade organization… My father was unquestionably my childhood hero: a hedonist, a gastronome, and a man who cherished and passionately savored life.” → Sadly things turned for the worse when he was a kid: “I never fully understood how or why, but sometime in the late 1960s, when I was still a young boy, Open Road Tours went bankrupt. I remember abundant tears and shame, but few details. I heard comments like, "We expanded too quickly"; and I had thoughts like, "My hero failed." (Caused tumult in the family and a string of poor business choices from here on)
• Guided by his father's failures of leverage and excessive growth: “Looking back, I realize that gambling is a metaphor for how my father ran his businesses, and my deep fear of repeating his mistakes has always colored the way I run mine. Because each of his doomed experiences was marked by overly rapid expansion, I have always been afraid to expand my business too quickly…”
• “Still, I've been willing to make a $1 million bet on a new restaurant. I'm far more inclined to take risks when I'm essentially betting on myself, but I can do that only because I've surrounded myself with highly talented people of solid integrity… My father, on the other hand, never felt compelled to surround himself with people who were better or smarter at anything than he believed he was. He had a greater need to feel important, to be agreed with, to be the king. It was no coincidence that he named his company after Caesar. While I, too, love sitting in the captain's chair, my greatest joy comes not from going it alone, but from leading an ensemble. Hospitality is a team sport.” (Surround yourself with better people Catmull and pick ROI over EGO!)

Experimenting and Finding Inspiration as a Child

• He was constantly experimenting growing up: “I created my own signature barbecue sauce by mixing Open Pit with ketchup, crushed garlic, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, a dash of cayenne, and loads of cracked black pepper. I learned to make pizza from scratch. I was proud of my recipe for tacos. My friends enjoyed what they ate when they came to our house… and most of them seemed to get a kick out of the fact that each visit would be spent playing basketball, football, hockey, or Ping-Pong and then cooking.” (Just like Ed Thorp experimenting with chemistry as a kid - testing common wisdom)
• “Steak 'n' Shake seemed to be where my friends and I all ended up every weekend night, throwing back shoestring fries, steak burgers with cheese, and shakes. Were those necessarily the best hamburgers to be found anywhere? It didn't matter, because the nights at Steak 'n' Shake with curbside service in our own cars were the best hamburger experiences I had ever known.” (The best until he created Shakeshack! - I love hearing these childhood hobbies becoming business pursuits, like Meyer here or Buffett delivering newspapers to owning Washington Post stake or for me personally building legos to building real estate)

Pursuing His Restauranteur Dream

• Even as an independent salesman for Checkpoint after college, Meyer was beginning to get the entrepreneurial itch: “I had built my own little business within a business, creating my own schedule, plotting my own tactics, and exceeding whatever goals were set for me. My dad and both of my grandfathers had worked for themselves, and they were all presidents of their companies. My mother had owned her own art gallery. I had an uncontainable drive to win that was now in high gear.” → he started taking cooking classes from his favorite NYC chefs in his free time and taking road trips across Europe, devoted to finding the best food spots
• After a pivotal conversation with his uncle, he finally decides to drop everything and pursue his dream of being a restaurateur: “I would have a chance to give others two things I craved: good food and warm hospitality. I had begun to understand that business and life have a lot in common with a hug. The best way to get a good one was first to give one.” (Win-win: treat customers right and the score takes care of itself - Bill Walsh)