Unreasonable Hospitality

Learn the surprising power of delivering beyond your customers’ expectations.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

AS SEEN ON THE HIT TV SHOW ‘THE BEAR’

The inspiring, bestselling guide to the essential lessons in service and leadership from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park.

Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling New York City two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world.

How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation?

Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room – and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality.

Guidara’s team surprised a family who had never seen snow with a magical sledding trip to Central Park after their dinner; they filled a private dining room with sand, complete with mai-tais and beach chairs, to console a couple with a cancelled vacation.

His hospitality extended beyond those dining at the restaurant – his own team reaped the benefits of his leadership and lessons, learning-

To deliver praise and criticism with intention,
Why the answer to some of the most pernicious business dilemmas is to give more – not less, and
That the magic that can happen when a busser starts thinking like an owner.

Now in Unreasonable Hospitality, Guidara shows us that every business can choose to be a hospitality business – and how we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.

Featuring sparkling stories of his journey through restaurants, with the industry’s most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do – for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.

Author Biography

Will Guidara is the author of the New York Times bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality, which chronicles the lessons in service and leadership he has learned over the course of his career in restaurants. He is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which under his leadership was named the Best Restaurant in the World. He is the host of the Welcome Conference, a co-producer of the Emmy Award-winning series The Bear, and a recipient of the Wall Street Journal Innovator Award. He lives in New York with his wife, Christina, and their two children, Frankie and Sonny.