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Daniel Meyer

Founder & Chairman of the Board of Directors, SHAKE SHACK INC

Search every verified Daniel Meyer interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Danny Meyer has been promoting his new book, *What Could Possibly Go Right? The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture*, released on September 29, 2026, which he has described as an exploration of lessons learned over the 20 years since his first book, *Setting the Table*. In interviews, he has discussed his philosophy of "enlightened hospitality," which prioritizes employees, customers, community, suppliers, and investors in order. He has reflected on past business decisions, including the closing of his restaurant Tabla, which he said he kept open too long, and a no-tipping experiment that he said did not work financially. He has also described Shake Shack's growth from a Madison Square Park hot dog cart to more than 700 locations, and he has said he aims to "scale values" and use growth to advance company culture rather than merely maintain it. Across appearances on outlets including PBS's *Firing Line*, *Late Night with Seth Meyers*, and podcasts such as *The LA Food Podcast*, Meyer has discussed topics such as the role of social media in restaurants, the use of AI, and restaurant industry practices. He has said he does not want robots in dining rooms because they cannot offer human empathy, and he has described social media as "the postcard of our day" for restaurants. He has also spoken about defining culture as "the sum of all of the wanted behaviors that we celebrate minus all of the unwanted behaviors that we tolerate," and about his preference for asking "what could possibly go right" as a guiding question. He has described optimism as "an action" and discussed his belief that great people want to be part of a winning team.

Recent appearances

  • Danny Meyer on Building Shake Shack & His New Bestseller, “What Could Possibly Go Right?”

    October 23, 2026 · 📺 Phil Rosenthal World

    Danny Meyer -- the founder and executive chairman of the Union Square Hospitality Group -- joins Phil and David for a conversation about his remarkable career in the hospitality industry, including the massive success story of Shake Shack and his new New York Times best-selling memoir, "What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture." For more on Danny Meyer and the Union Square Hospitality Group, and his new book, go to https://www.ushg.com/danny-meyer. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanth…

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  • What Could Possibly Go Right? A Conversation with Danny Meyer

    October 23, 2026 · 📺 Northbeam

    Few leaders have shaped modern hospitality as profoundly as Danny Meyer. Since opening Union Square Cafe in 1985, he has built Union Square Hospitality Group, helped create Shake Shack, and made “Enlightened Hospitality” a leadership philosophy that reaches far beyond restaurants. Meyer sat with Northbeam Co-Founder and CEO Austin Harrison at Meyer's Manhatta restaurant to discuss the past, present and future of company culture. This session was part of the 2026 Northbeam Conference in NYC. ---------------------- 🛰️ Discover Northbeam: northbeam.io 📬 Get free ad performance benchmarks…

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  • Danny Meyer in Conversation with John Grisham

    October 21, 2026 · 📺 The 92nd Street Y, New York

    In 2006, Danny Meyer, who was widely considered to be America’s most successful restaurateur and owned 11 restaurants, was also nurturing a tiny burger kiosk in Madison Square Park. In 25 years, he had never closed a restaurant, and his celebrated establishments like Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe were must-visit destinations for food lovers everywhere. But just a few years later, he shuttered his beloved Tabla — a decision that made him reflect on what it truly meant to be a leader. Meyer realized that his fear of failure wasn’t just misguided, it was an impediment to his entrepreneuri…

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  • Exceptional Leaders: Shake Shack: Hospitality at Scale

    October 16, 2026 · 📺 Morgan Stanley

    In this episode of Exceptional Leaders, Danny Meyer, Founder and Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group reflects on the journey from opening one restaurant to launching the global chain Shake Shack, and shares how companies can maintain their culture and core principles as they scale up.

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  • What Could Possibly Go Right? by Danny Meyer | Official Audiobook

    October 09, 2026 · 📺 Penguin Random House Audio

    What Could Possibly Go Right? by Danny Meyer | read by Danny Meyer | Official Audiobook | Unabridged | 🎧📖 Business & Economics - Leadership ✅ Continue listening to the full audiobook at PRH.com: https://bit.ly/3VebjtT Text Copyright 2026 by Danny Meyer. Production Copyright 2026, Penguin Random House, LLC. Please note that no part of this audiobook may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Restaurateur, entrepren…

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  • Danny Meyer's Reality Check | THE LA FOOD PODCAST INTERVIEW

    October 05, 2026 · 📺 Acquired Taste Media

    Danny Meyer (https://www.instagram.com/dhmeyer/?hl=en) changed American dining with Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and Shake Shack. But what happens when the hospitality guy gets it wrong? The legendary restaurateur joins Luca Servodio to discuss why his no-tipping experiment couldn’t make the math work, how listening to critics led Shake Shack astray, and why keeping Tabla open too long hurt the employees he thought he was protecting. Plus, why Los Angeles is one of the world’s most exciting food cities, the LA restaurants he loves, and whether a 27-year-old Danny Meyer could open Uni…

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  • Your Culture Is What You Tolerate, Not What You Celebrate

    October 05, 2026 · 📺 Molly Fletcher

    Danny Meyer has spent four decades building some of the most admired hospitality businesses in America, from Union Square Cafe to Shake Shack. In this clip from Game Changers, he tells Molly Fletcher why he threw out language his company had used proudly for years, including the word family, and what he put in its place. Along the way he shares two definitions of culture that shaped his thinking, one from a former Whole Foods co-CEO and one from a college athletic director who admitted he couldn't define it at all. Then he lands on his own, and explains why the second half of it is where most…

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  • Danny Meyer | Full Episode 10.2.26 | Firing Line with Margaret Hoover | PBS

    October 03, 2026 · 📺 Firing Line with Margaret Hoover | PBS

    Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer dishes on the secret sauce behind his success: putting people before profits. He takes on tipping, AI in restaurants, Anthony Bourdain, and New York City Mayor Mamdani. This program is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station: www.pbs.org/donate Subscribe to the PBS channel for more clips:     / pbs   Enjoy full episodes of your favorite PBS shows anytime, anywhere with the free PBS Video App: https://to.pbs.org/2QbtzhR Listen to our podcast for extended interviews: Apple: apple.co/3gebsWt Spotify: spoti.fi/3ybJlAU Amazon: bit.ly/3HV…

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  • Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer on how 'OPTIMISM' and learning from failures is key to success

    October 01, 2026 · 📺 MS NOW

    Restaurateur and bestselling author Danny Meyer joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book, ‘What Could Possibly Go Right? The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture’. In it, the founder of the international billion-dollar chain Shake Shack explains why optimism –even in the face of failure– isn’t naïve, it’s an advantage.    MS NOW: My Source for News, Opinion, and the World. » Subscribe to MS NOW:    / @msnow   Become an MS NOW Member! Join us here http://ms.now/membership MS NOW is the go-to destination for domestic and international breaking news, and best-in-class opinion journ…

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  • This billion-dollar business started as a hot dog cart

    October 01, 2026 · 📺 NY1

    Pat sits down with Danny Meyer, restaurateur and founder of Union Square Hospitality Group, to discuss how he built Shake Shack into a global business, why he sets certain expectations for employees, and which mistakes he's learned the most from as described in his new book, “What Could Possibly Go Right?” 00:00 Intro 01:17 Danny’s routine and Daily Provisions 05:10 The best milkshake in the world? 09:05 Shake Shack’s rejected names 13:26 Company culture and setting expectations 19:44 Controversy over crinkle cut fries 24:16 Bringing hospitality to New York 28:19 Rapid fire round #Spectrum…

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  • Danny Meyer Says Social Media Is Like the New Version of a Postcard for Restaurants

    September 30, 2026 · 📺 Late Night with Seth Meyers

    Danny Meyer talks about founding Shake Shack, people using smartphones in restaurants and his new book What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture. Late Night with Seth Meyers. Stream now on Peacock: https://bit.ly/3erP2gX Subscribe to Late Night: http://bit.ly/LateNightSeth Watch Late Night with Seth Meyers Weeknights 12:35ET/11:35c on NBC. Get more Late Night with Seth Meyers: http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-se... LATE NIGHT ON SOCIAL Follow Late Night on Twitter:   / latenightseth   Like Late Night on Facebook:   / latenightseth   Follow Late…

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  • How Shake Shack Founder Danny Meyer Accidentally Started a Billion-Dollar Empire

    September 30, 2026 · 📺 TODAY

    Most people spend their lives trying to avoid mistakes, but restaurateur Danny Meyer, the visionary behind Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality Group, believes that failure is actually the greatest teacher we have. In this moving conversation from Making Space with Hoda Kotb, Danny Meyer pulls back the curtain on the hardest moments of his career and what it takes to bounce back when everything falls apart. He and Hoda explore his new memoir, What Could Possibly Go Right?, discussing why putting your employees first, trusting your gut, and asking the right question can completely change yo…

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I think I think it's good to you grow where you're planted for a little while. I don't need know that needs to be 5 years, but I do think that there's a lot to be said for letting your roots take and really learning your business and learning what works, what you'd like to have work better. And while you're doing it, presumably, you have a a public that's falling in love with it. And they are clamoring for more. And ”

“I want to scale values more than I want to scale units. And so the thing that gets us really really excited every morning, I've shared this before, but in our industry, there are quick serve restaurants, I think McDonald's, Ray Kroc deserves a lot of the credit for this, that have totally learned to scale systems, which is why the food tastes exactly the same everywhere you go. And you know, that's genius what he did”

“I think that's the answer. I in fact, I'm grateful for how you asked the question in that we had a five-year campaign, and it was a campaign. It was called Hospitality Included. And the campaign was to address, as you said, the inequities between and all this is based on United States law and state law. Much of it is is state labor law. And there's all kinds of different state laws about this. But in New York State, ”

“The problem with it is that we already have a big disparity between what tipped employees make and what kitchen workers make. Kitchen workers are not getting a tax credit because they don't get tips. And so the people that make the most money in restaurants are tipped employees because a tip is a multiplier of ever-increasing menu prices. It's good for them. But the kitchen workers, their hourly wage remains relative”

“I wasn't convinced. It's because I had an amazing leader on our team, a young guy named Randy Gerudi who had been a manager of Tabla, a manager of Union Square Cafe. And he fell in love with Shake Shack. And for three years, he was trying to convince me that there was a space on the Upper West Side. It was the former museum cafe, which used to be very popular. And Randy walked by it every day because he lived near th”

“I've got to really credit what we just spoke about, enlightened hospitality, because so this goes back to 2000 and 2001. We had a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park that was part of a piece of art that we had helped to bring to Madison Square Park for the purpose of bringing people to the park. Why? Why do we do that? Well, we wanted to have art to take care of our community. That was part of enlightened hospitality”

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →