Danny Meyer

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

Meyer was born and raised in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis, where he attended John Burroughs School. As a child Meyer attended Camp Nebagamon for boys in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. During college Meyer worked for his father as a tour guide in Rome and then returned to Rome to study international politics. Meyer was a Brother of Alpha Delta Phi while at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Trinity 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.

In 1985, at age 27, Meyer opened his first restaurant. Meyer's other restaurants and businesses include Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 at MoMA, Maialino at the Gramercy Park Hotel, Untitled at the North End Grill, Marta, Porchlight, GreenRiver, 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, Box Frites, and Papa Rosso) including the Mets Citi Field, Saratoga Race Course, and Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.

In 2010, Meyer participated in a documentary called "The Restaurateur".

In late 2011, Union Square Hospitality group sold Eleven Madison Park to its chef Daniel Humm and front-of-house director Will Guidara.

Meyer co-wrote 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 wrote 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.

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.

Four of USHG's restaurants have earned three stars from The New York Times; Eleven Madison Park was upgraded to four stars in 2009. USHG's restaurants routinely appear among the Most Popular in New York City according to the Zagat guide, 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, Gramercy Tavern holds one Michelin Star, and GreenRiver was awarded one Michelin Star in 2016. In 2016, The Modern was awarded a Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2016.

Awards

Meyer and USHG have won 28 James Beard Foundation Awards.

• 2018 Workplace Legacy Award, TDn2K
• 2017 Julia Child Award, The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts
• 2016 No. 1, Nation's Restaurant News Power List
• 2015 TIME 100 Most Influential People
• 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

Meyer was interviewed by Reid Hoffman on the Masters of Scale podcast, where he talked about how he ignored conventional wisdom to revolutionize the restaurant industry.He most recently appeared on The Ringer's House of Carbs Podcast, where he presented his Washington D.C. establishment "Maialino Mare" and talked about his career in hospitality.

• The Union Square Cafe 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."

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