Finally got to this. Enjoyable breezy read covering the inner workings of running an elite restaurant in New York City, its evolution and rise to top-tier status from its previously middling rank, through a philosophy of giving equal status to service alongside food, and especially through elevating service to outrageous over the top levels through an approach the author terms as ‘unreasonable hospitality’.
What stood out to me was the efforts that went into uplifting service standards at the hotel including their obsession with getting everything just right, such as continually adjusting the music and lighting at the restaurant, adjusting it to existing noise levels and sunlight levels respectively (pgs 120-27 capture this well).
Along the same lines, there is a fascinating depiction, possibly my fave part of the book, where they describe the efforts they went to get the food and service right, for the NYT critic’s visit, given the high stakes nature of the paper’s review. They designated one random table every night as the critics’ table and used that for the dress rehearsal. Every night. The effort paid off in lifting the service and cuisine levels resulting in four stars (which only five restaurants in NYC had received). Pgs 175-76 covering this critic’s table effort is a treat.
Link to my notes on the book including highlights of what I found interesting.