Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

the very feature that had won us this accolade—our ease and informality in the dining room—had suddenly become less appropriate in the wake of it.

Start pushing, try different things, and the idea will begin to define itself.

In the spirit of surprise and delight, we hid flasks of whiskey in hollowed volumes scattered throughout. If you found one of these real-life Easter eggs, it was yours to enjoy.

Creativity is an active process, not a passive one.

fricassee

People have spent a lot of time speculating about why Daniel and I decided to go our separate ways. The truth is simple: we fell out of love. People grow apart. You realize that you and your partner no longer share the same interests, the same priorities—you’re no longer looking at the world in the same way. Nothing can rob you of what you’ve share

On its surface, this is a book about a talented entrepreneur who helped transform a middling brasserie in New York City into the best restaurant in the world. However, this book is much bigger and more important than that. It is a book about how to treat people. How to listen. How to be curious. And how to learn to love the feeling of making others

As my dad says: “Don’t run away from what you don’t want; run toward what you do.” We didn’t make the changes we made over that year because we were running away from complexity or difficulty or ambition, but because we were running toward a purer experience.

“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.”