Unreasonable Hospitality

This was one of my favorite books in a long time. I LOVED it. It was meant to be a chaser to Setting the Table as Guidara was a protege of Danny Meyer in some ways, but I liked it even more! Guidara climbed his way up the restaurant ranks (working under Meyer for a hefty chunk of the time), ultimately buying Eleven Madison Park (with Daniel Humm) from Danny Meyer. The story of how they built and grew EMP is pretty legendary. At times it reads like a sports book where you are rooting for a team and just want them to win. I found myself becoming emotional so many times as the restaurant won awards and excellent reviews. It’s equal parts restaurant memoir where you root for this team, but also a business book. Guidara applies lessons he has learned in the restaurant world to other professions like real estate. I truly believe anyone, in any profession, could benefit from reading this. And it’s also very fun. I listened to it on audio (Guidara narrates) and cannot recommend it enough. I have actually never dined at Eleven Madison Park and now I’m dying to go (though I hear it’s quite different now!).