March 12, 2020 was the last day Union Square Hospitality Group served meals in their venues. Since then, USHG has laid off 2,000 staffs, which consist of 80% of its workforce. How does the world’s top restauranteur navigating through this crisis? What are CEO Danny Meyer and his team doing to stay positive?
Straight Talk with Wine Spectator is a new Instagram series with America’s prominent wine-and-food newsmakers, shedding light on the changes and challenges the industry is facing. Here, Wine Spectator executive editor Thomas Matthews talked with Danny Meyer on navigating at USHG, surviving the pandemic and comfort food is what people want right now.
Key Takeaways
- How is his team deliver hospitality in new innovative formats
- Stay connected. He has been hosting weekly Zoom video chats with his entire displaced team. “The three things we’ve been focused on have been, for now: Stay safe, stay home and stay in contact,” said Danny
- What would Danny Meyer tell the 27-year-old Danny Meyer in how to go about succeeding in the post-pandemic world
- The importance of communities – restaurants, suppliers, wine, food coming together in solidarity to support each other. “If there’s any silver lining is that when you’re all in this together, you rise together, you fall together, but ultimately we’re in it with each other”
and his earnest expression of hope for the industry, and that this too shall pass, what remains are “your values, and also the human desire to be with human beings.”
We are irrepressible in our desire to gather, and the minute that that’s safe to do it, we’re going to be there.
Read more: 5 key lessons business owners can learn from Danny Meyer’s Covid-19 Open Statement
