I wonder if/how this will change the restaurant.
Congratulations to Daniel Humm and Will Guidara for now owning the restaurant.
Also, congratulations to them for earning three Michelin ***.
It won’t change anything, except give Daniel and WIll free reign to make their own decisions without having to have “corporate approval.”
I actually asked Daniel this very question and he told me nothing will change.
Well…techincally, they have “backers”. How many? Only they know. I’m sure they’ll need some sort of “approval” before making major decisions. No?
Great for them. Categorically I believe very little of this story. No restaurant company gives up a highly profitable restaurant in it’s prime. They have investors to satisfy. You can also not say nothing will change. Loosing the resources of a company backing is important. That’s not to say that they can’t be successful on their own. That being said I wish them nothing but good fortune and success. This is what every restaurant person dreams off.
Of course, for huge decisions. But I’m talking about things like wording on a menu (ok, doesn’t apply so much here because they have a…shall we say…streamlined menu). For example, at USHG restaurants, any menu change has to be sent to the corporate office for review, comment, suggested changes, and approval. Not an insignificant thing. Other similar changes have to be reviewed by corporate. Here, they are “corporate” except for expenses that would exceed a budgeted amount.
Hi Nick
You may not believe much of it, but what’s reported is basically true. Danny said it–if Daniel and Will had left (and given other options, they would have not remained ‘employees’ for long)–he would have had to start over. To put it bluntly, Daniel and Will are basically what has made EMP special or what it is today. If they left, it would no longer be a 4 star restaurant. Kind of like if Daniel or Jean-Georges left. Would you want to start over with EMP? Danny decided he did not. EMP is somewhat uniquely a personality driven restaurant–based on Daniel’s and WIll’s personalities that (dominate is not quite the word) overshadow the place.
The WSJ reports they have one major financial backer, who is on the Forbes top 400 list and whose net worth starts with a “b.”
They’ll do just fine.
I am interested to see where in particular John Ragan ends up within the Meyer group.
John is now the wine director for the Union Square Hospitality Group.
Wilfred,
I have no doubt they’ll do great. Why didn’t Meyer just make them a partner ?
Nick,
I’m not Wilfred and I’m only speculating, but I’m not sure what the benefit would have been for the EMP folks to have to be a partner in such a big company if Danny was willing to be bought out. The big money to him is in expanding Shake Shack now vs. fine dining, I think.
Because the were offered and wanted to accept doing food/beverage/FOH for a nearby hotel which was not part of USHGNYC. Danny would not agree to let them do the hotel AND stay at EMP and Daniel and Will would not agree to NOT do the hotel operation.
Wine director of Union Square Hospitality Group. He will be staying with the Meyer operation while Daniel and Will go a separate direction.
The question I have is why did Meyer sell out if it’s so profitable. He has investors here. So he just goes to them and says here’s a check and now there is no more. If they were seeing steady distributions they’d be pissed. It should also be pointed out that they are not exiting the fine dining scene to concentrate on Shake Shack correct ? Look anything is possible but I’ll say this. If this is really the whole truth then this is the first time I’ve seen this shake out like this. When it was announced they were changing there format Wilfred and I disagreed as to what it meant. I felt it was a sign they were not performing to their potential financially. Wilfred felt that the story they said was accurate. They were changing to raise the standards and although they were already very profitable this was about raising the bar. I think this recent announcement bolsters my position.
One last point. If things went down as they said they did. Then basically Meyer was held hostage by his employees to sell out. sell or we’re walking basically. Doesn’t make sense.
What would the value of EMP be without Will or Daniel?
Also to Nick:
Why would anyone buy EMP if it wasn’t profitible?
Good question. The value without the GM I would say would be the same. Sad to say but I’ve found this to be true. As to the chef, like I said why wouldn’t DM just offer him a partnership ? Was there a problem in their relationship ? Again depending on who you replaced him with if Daniel left the restaurant should do fine. Gordon Sinclair here in Chicago ran his restaurant for 25 plus years and went through many great chefs. He felt it was a time to reinvent himself. It would also garner the store a fresh review. Two restaurants again here received 2 and 3 michelin stars last year and both subsequently lost their chef. Both seem to be doing just as good if not better. I once was running one of the most successful restaurants in town and left to do a high profile opening. The guy who replaced me was a complete chooch but they continued to prosper. It’s a mistake to feel that anyone is irreplaceable.
Remember I never said they were not profitable. Just that they probably were not as financially successful as they wished or wanted. A large company such as Union Square has different expectations than 3 partners. Union Square has different partners that all take a cut. Plus there is a contribution to the holding companies cost structure. Run independently you could trim a lot of that. It’s a bonus if one partner is already wealthy and is just happy to be there so to speak. Now they’re opening different restaurants they can spread their salary around and hire managers for much less to run the show.
Daniel got an offer and agreed to accept a deal to do all the food and beverage for a new boutique hotel in NYC. This arrangement was not agreeable with Danny. The option was to release Daniel from EMP and start over, or to allow Daniel (and Will) to buy EMP.
This is the simple/basic answer to your question as to why Danny wouldn’t just offer Daniel a partnership. Its because of the hotel deal–a hotel owned by a different company–that Daniel wanted to accept and to which Danny would not agree. That is why.
(PS All this is from public statements by Danny Meyer and Daniel Humm and Will Guidara–not from any private conversation).
Ok. Regardless of what the P&L statement looked like I wish everyone involved all the good fortune in the world. I also eagerly await the day I can get back to NYC and dine there.
+1
What Wilfred has written above jibes completely with what my daughter learned from a close friend who works for a restaurant in the Danny Meyer group.
We had a stunningly good dinner at EMP three weeks ago. Just stunning. It was in the middle of a food stuffed week visiting the City and our daughter who lives there on our way to a food stuffed month in London/Paris. We only had the small menu. When it came time to order, I asked the server to ask Daniel to serve me whatever he thought was best that night. Some dishes came as described during the oral ‘menu,’ some were different, all were great. We’ve been a bunch of times, but this was only our second visit after the menu change (we do live in California, otherwise we would be there more frequently) and this meal confirmed that EMP is at the very top of my favorite US restaurants. Best of continued success to all involved. I think Danny Meyer is the best restaurant owner in the US. Mike Anthony is doing great things at Gramercy (which doesn’t get its due as the quintessential restaurant of American coking (including Blue Hill(s))’ and I look forward to whatever Danny and Daniel do next. Can’t wait to learn more about the hotel. For anyone interested, we stayed at Firmdale’s new Crosby Street Hotel and it was exactly what we expected, as we always stay in a Frimdale (the Soho) in London. Our new favorite New York hotel