Randy Garutti: using a combination of brains, heart and courage, this 'wizard' guides NY restaurant to top dining status

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 26, 2004 by Erica Duecy

At Union Square Care, general manager Randy Garutti says the secret to the restaurant's success can be summed up in one word: hospitality.

Zagat Survey recently named the restaurant the most popular eatery in Manhattan.

"If service is black and white, hospitality is color," Garutti explains. "Anyone can do service; it's a technical ability. Hospitality happens when people get that warmth, when the person you're dealing with feels like you're on their side, when they feel like this is a second home."

Union Square Cafe, which serves contemporary American cuisine, is part of restaurateur Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group. The 155-seat restaurant does about $7.5 million in annual sales with a per-person check average of $35 for lunch and $60 for dinner.

At 28 years of age, Garutti already has managed several fine-dining restaurants around the country, including Canlis in Seattle and Tabla, another USHG restaurant, in New York.

"He is what I would refer to as a Wizard of Oz manager," says Richard Coraine, director of operations for USHG. "He's got the brains, heart and courage to emphasize hospitality over everything else in our business."

Coraine characterizes Garutti as a humble person. "He's unique in that he is a great listener, and he takes feedback exceptionally well," Coraine says. "He's very welcoming of insight, feedback and wisdom from other people."

Originally from Hackensack, N.J., Garutti found his calling early. After working at age 13 as a bagel baker, Garutti knew he would pursue a career in the hospitality industry. He claims the energy and glamour of the field as well as the ability to traveldrew him to it.

At Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, Garutti found his niche in restaurant management. Senior lecturer Giuseppe Pezzotti refers to Garutti as "one of a new generation of modern restaurant managers" in that he gives equal consideration in his decision-making to the needs of management, his employees and the customers. "He tries to look at the total experience as a triangle," Pezzotti says. "That way everybody wins."

Pezzotti frequently takes students to visit the restaurants Garutti manages to show an example of a work environment with positive manager-employee relations. "When people work with Randy, they work with him, not for him," Pezzotti says. "It's a team environment where the staff is happy serving and creating an excellent dining experience for the guest."

Garutti's first job out of college was as a manager at the Chart House in Aspen, Colo. Less than a year later he was promoted to assistant general manager of Chart House in Lahaina, Maui, where he worked for a year.

Garutti then had the opportunity to run Canlis, a renowned fine-dining restaurant in Seattle. He was brought on as an assistant general manager but was promoted to general manager after only a few months, at age 24.

"When he came to work for me, I didn't intend for him to run the restaurant," says owner Chris Canlis, "but his genuine enthusiasm and compassion won the staff over, and I knew he was the right person for the job."

Canlis describes Garutti as a "can-do, this-is-going-to-be-fun, let's-get-to-it kind of guy." He adds, "He has that contagious enthusiasm you need in a fast-paced restaurant environment."

On a trip to New York, Canlis suggested that Garutti meet with Danny Meyer. "I never planned on working in New York--I'm an outdoors person," he says. "I like skiing, surfing and kayaking. But when I met [Danny Meyer], I knew I wanted to work with him."

A year later Garutti had the chance, when Meyer tapped him as the general manager of Tabla, a fine-dining Indian fusion concept in New York. Tabla was a "tough challenge in the beginning," Garutti notes, "because it is a unique concept that is very challenging to run operationally." The restaurant employs two front- and back-of-the-house teams: one for the formal upstairs dining room and the other for the restaurant's casual Bread Bar, which is located downstairs. "It is expensive to operate," Garutti says, "so we had to drive sales very far and cut a lot of costs and keep our team happy."

Coraine, who also is managing partner of Tabla, says Garutti's biggest strength is his ability to build team camaraderie. "He is equal parts boss and cheerleader," Coraine says. In the past four years, Garutti has developed into a manager who really understands the dynamics of operating a large restaurant, Coraine observes. During Garutti's tenure at Tabla, he helped the restaurant's profitability grow about 25 percent per year.

USHG president Meyer says financial performance was not the main reason for Garutti's promotion to the company's flagship restaurant. "More than anything, Randy had absolutely earned the deep respect of the staff at Tabla," he notes. "That's the one currency that means more to me than anything else. When leaders demand excellence, it doesn't always feel good. Randy knows how to make it feel great to be excellent."

Of his team at Union Square Cafe, Garutti states they are "among the proudest of any restaurant, anywhere in the country. They raise the standard on their own and hold each other accountable."