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Quite recently, the group
announced it would eliminate
tipping from all of its restau-
rants, which received a divided
response from the fine-dining
community. How did this come
about?
I remember sitting in an office in 1995 with
Danny and one of the first things he wanted
to work on was what he called "hospitality
included." At the time we only had two res-
taurants. And so we met for a few weeks and
we developed a strategy. Then our accoun-
tant, about a week before we were going to
launch, said, "We're going to lose a lot of
money on this." So Danny and I decided
maybe we shouldn't do it just yet.
But he never let it go. Every few years
he'd say, "I really want to do this." And
then we would run some numbers and the
CFO would come in and go, "I don't think
it's a financially sound decision." And so we
squeegeed it away. Finally about a year ago,
he said, "We're going to do it. We're smart
people and we're going to figure out how it's
a good business decision." We had—I say
this proudly—the best in the industry at
what they do, my colleagues, work on this
for about a year solid before we announced
anything. That's what great leaders do.
They say, "I am convicted to doing this, and
we're going to win at it, and we're not going
to stop until we win."
q&a
Olivia Kingsley is a creative writer based in
San Francisco whose work can be found at
olivia-kingsley.com
"That's what great
leaders do. They say,
'I am convicted to
doing this, and we're
going to win at it, and
we're not going to
stop until we win.'"
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