Unreasonable hospitality – not just a book tip

How often have you stood in the entrance area of a restaurant where you booked a table weeks before with great expectation and anticipation? After you have given your name and details of your reservation, the first thing that happens is: nothing.

The employee at the reception desk is engrossed in a screen in order to more or less quickly call up their reservation and view and arrange the table allocation. Meanwhile, they look at the person’s head, or worse still, stand in front of their standing desk like a petitioner.

It feels like the wait takes forever. If it is a particularly important personal or business reservation, nervousness sets in: What if the reservation has been lost? What if the restaurant has overbooked? What if the table at the window that you want so much for this meal has already been taken?

For the New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park, Will Guidara came up with a solution to this situation, which is the same in almost all restaurants: As soon as a guest made a reservation, a picture of the person was searched for on the Internet. If a picture of the person in whose name the table was reserved existed on the Internet, it was found and given to the service team to prepare for the day and time of the reservation.

As soon as you enter the restaurant, the service employee smiles at you and greets you with “Welcome Mr. or Mrs. XY. Nice of you to join us for lunch today”.

What a difference. A little more effort and the guest as a supplicant becomes a guest who feels welcome and appreciated. Bill Guardia calls it Unreasonable Hospitality.

Success through unreasonable hospitality

After his studies and initial practical experience, Will Guidara took over the management of the Eleven Madison Park restaurant at the age of 26. At the same time, Swiss chef Daniel Humm was hired. From a mid-table restaurant, the two of them worked hard over several years to turn the restaurant into one of the 50 best restaurants in the world.

Will Guidara’s idea was to scrutinize every process in a restaurant’s service and consider how, in addition to Daniel Humm’s excellence on the plate, he could inspire guests with outstanding service. The two of them wanted service that inspires and makes guests talk about it with their friends and acquaintances.

A family celebrating their farewell dinner at Eleven Madison Park before heading home to Europe were chatting about how they had experienced a lot of culinary delights in New York, but unfortunately hadn’t been able to try the famous street hot dog. Will Guidara sent a member of staff to the nearest hot dog stand and had the hot dog served on fine restaurant china. Enthusiasm around the table.

After the meal, nobody had to search for a coat check and wait for the checkroom. It was already taken to a small room next to the exit the moment the guest paid and handed to them there.

If someone was interested in the producers of the butter or cheese, they were brought a small card to the table, on which they could later read the information they had received about the producer from the service.

The book ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’ contains numerous examples of how, with empathy and sensitivity, it was possible to turn the meal in this restaurant into an experience that not only served top-class cuisine on the plate, but also allowed the guest to actually experience hospitality.

Dream or reality?

Under the direction of Will Guardia and Daniel Humm, the Eleven Madison Park restaurant received the highest possible rating from the New York Times’ most important critic and was awarded stars in the Michelin Guide.

Some may say that it is possible to spoil guests at this price level. Well, the margins in top restaurants are hard-earned. On the other hand, Will Guardia has already demonstrated his passion for detail in his previous roles, for example when he was responsible for the cafés and staff restaurant at the MOMA Museum in New York.

There, he had the best ice cream parlor in the city develop an ice cream cart, which was on the move in the museum’s famous sculpture garden during the warmer months. But it wasn’t just the ice cream cart that was tinkered with for a long time: The little blue ice cream spoon that came with it, which even delighted the museum’s curators during a visit, provided a talking point. Will Guidara spent months developing this little detail.

And therein lies the core message of this book: it is worth making a special effort with a detail that surprises, delights and is remembered by the buyer, guest, visitor, friend or girlfriend. This could be a small blue plastic ice cream spoon.

True hospitality is always unreasonable

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SALES WITHOUT REGRET

At its best, hospitality goes beyond what is generally expected. We can all make our guests feel it in our own homes or practice it in our professional environment.

It’s not quantity, but quality that counts: Remembering what the other person has mentioned in passing. Opening the door for a spontaneous visit, even if it’s not the right time. Sharing what you like yourself.

Seen in this light, all genuine hospitality is unreasonable, because it is not based on rational consideration but on emotion and the joy of going the extra mile.

And Eleven Madison Park?

After some time, Will Guidara and Daniel Humm went from being employees to owners and the restaurant achieved three Michelin stars.

Metropolitan Life North Building, 11 Madison Avenue, the Flatiron District © GloriousMe

Then they parted ways. Daniel Humm paid off his former co-owner Will Guidara and changed the kitchen concept. Eleven Madison Park is now a vegan restaurant and the first vegan restaurant to be awarded three stars by the Michelin Guide.

Will Guidara’s book is an interesting read for anyone who is passionate about good service in a restaurant, and it contains many charming ideas that you would like to see as a guest. The biographical part of the book tells of Will Guidara’s parents, of how a smile can fill a room and radiate warmth that nothing can replace, and you understand why service that radiates empathy and warmth is so important to him.

Photographs © GloriousMe

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