The most talked about dish at one of the best restaurants in the world cost about $2. It was a hot dog from a street cart.
The restaurant was Eleven Madison Park in New York. The man who bought the hot dog was Will Guidara, who ran the front of house there. He tells the story in his book Unreasonable Hospitality, and it’s a story I tell over and over.
The $2 hot dog on the $1,000 plate
Here’s how it goes. Guidara overheard a table of four near the end of their meal. The only thing they hadn’t eaten in New York, they said, was a hot dog from a street cart. So he went out and bought one. He took it back to the kitchen and had it plated up properly and served to them, much to the chef’s disgust.
Now ask yourself what thrilled those guests more. The expensive food they’d ordered, or the $2 hot dog?
I call it the $2 hot dog on the $1,000 plate. It’s the bit of the book that’s stuck in my mind more than anything. I once asked a podcast co-host what the $2 hot dog on his $1,000 plate was. I did admit my memory of the details might be a bit off. The details matter less than the point. Guess which bit those guests raved about afterwards.
Service and hospitality
Service is black and white. Hospitality is colour. That’s the heart of the book, and it’s Guidara’s own line. Service is getting the order right, on time, at the right temperature. Hospitality is how the person felt while you did it.
Guidara and his team obsessed over that feeling. They listened for little clues about their guests: a birthday, a first visit, an off-hand comment. They went out of their way to make something of it. Over the years the restaurant went from good to being named the best in the world. He’s clear that the food alone didn’t get it there.
They even had a role for it. Some of the team were given the job of turning those little clues into moments, and Guidara called them Dream Weavers. A couple celebrating something might find a surprise waiting. A guest who mentioned a favourite thing might find it turning up later in the evening. None of it was on the menu, and guests remembered all of it.
He also has a rule he calls 95/5. Manage ninety-five percent of your business carefully, watching every penny. After that, be generous, even a bit extravagant, with the last five percent, on moments that make people feel looked after. The hot dog cost almost nothing, and it’s the part of that meal people still talk about.
None of this needs a fancy restaurant. Any business can do it. For a builder it might be leaving the place tidier than they found it. For a shop, remembering a regular’s name and what they bought last time. For a coach, picking up on something a client mentioned in passing and following it up a month later. You just have to be paying attention, and care enough to act on what you hear.
The line from the book I picked for my guide is about the person giving the hospitality. “Hospitality is a selfish pleasure. It feels great to make other people feel good.”
I like that he’s honest about it. Making someone’s day is fun. It’s good for business as well, and when your team gets to do it, they enjoy their work more. Customers can tell.
He’s big on the idea that the way you treat your team is the way they’ll treat your customers. If your people feel looked after, listened to and trusted, they’ve got something to give. If they’re exhausted and ignored, no script in the world will make them warm with a guest.
So what’s your hot dog? What could you do for a customer this month that costs almost nothing and that they’ll still be talking about next year? It’s usually something small. It nearly always starts with listening.
If this one grabs you, it’s in my free guide, 50 Books That Shaped Me, in the chapter on selling and serving.
Somewhere in your business there’s a $2 hot dog, waiting for someone to go out and buy it.
