Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

Echoing the first chapter, Guidara describes how embarrassed he and Daniel were after coming in 50th at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. However, they returned to Eleven Madison Park with the goal of turning EMP into the best restaurant in the world, and had a method for doing so: unreasonable hospitality. For the rest of the chapter, Guidara describes how EMP strove to become unreasonably hospitable, bringing an extremely high level of care and intention to the guest experience.

Guidara removed anything in the restaurant’s dining room that made dining feel transactional, including computer terminals. He transformed the beginning and end of guests’ meals by making both touchpoints warmer and more personal. For instance, when guests arrived, the maître d’ would greet them by name (thanks to previous Googling that allowed them to match guests’ names to photos). Another employee would use sign language to communicate with the maître d’ to indicate whether the guests’ table was ready. The maître d’ would then seamlessly lead the guests to their table—or to the bar, if the table was not ready yet.

EMP took a new approach to checks in order to eliminate the awkwardness of transactional conversations at the end of meals. Servers would drop off the check without being asked, along with a complimentary bottle of premium liqueur. They would tell guests that they could take their time enjoying this after-dinner drink.

EMP also instituted a ticketless coat check, opting to organize the coat room according to dining table. When a guest began to head for the door, the person working coat check would retrieve their coat and have it ready by the time they reached the front of the restaurant.

Guidara also decided to list menu items by principal ingredient only, to encourage guests to start a conversation with the servers about their meal.

One night, a group of guests visiting from Europe dined at Eleven Madison Park. Guidara overheard them talking about how they’d gotten to eat at several of New York’s best fine dining restaurants, but the only thing they hadn’t tried was a street hotdog. Guidara ran out to buy a hotdog from a nearby cart, brought it back into the kitchen, and convinced Daniel to plate it. When Guidara brought it out to the table, he admitted to the guests that he had been eavesdropping, and presented them with the hotdog. In his words, they “freaked out” (200). They were so elated that before the end of the meal, each guest told Guidara that the hotdog had been the best part of their trip.

Guidara talked with his staff afterwards, thinking about what had been so special about the hotdog. He wondered if they could replicate that experience for other guests, and even systemize it. The staff began paying close attention to guests and finding opportunities to surprise and delight them with unexpected gifts. These came to be known as “legends.”

Eventually, Guidara hired a few people to be Dreamweavers—artistically talented employees who were dedicated to crafting these surprises. The team also found ways to systemize small moments of delight. For instance, they printed out information about the artist who made the restaurant’s plates. When servers noticed guests flipping over plates to check the name on the other side, they could pull out one of these pre-printed cards and hand it to the guest.

Guidara believes that people in many different industries can be inspired by these practices, and he encourages people to pay attention to their guests and customers so they can surprise them with highly tailored and unexpected gifts.