Rather daring, don’t you think, for a restaurateur to write a book titled Setting The Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business? Especially since no matter a restaurateur’s personal ideals and goals, he or she depends on chefs and servers to communicate these ideals to the guests. Not only must the restaurateur walk the talk, the staff must willingly do so as well.

Danny Meyer has been in business over 20 years, growing his original Union Square Café into a brand (Union Square Hospitality Group) now including the celebrated Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, Gramercy Park, and many others. In his new book, Meyer attempts to chronicle his not-quite rags to riches story of how he succeeded in the restaurant business by listening to people and putting the customer first.

Skeptical by nature and well-versed in the world of PR, I’d expected to read the typical froth about how the little things matter. And in print articles and interviews related to the book, I’ve read shaggy dog stories about how Meyer’s service-obsessed waiters jumped cabs to airports to return a forgotten purse to a diner, or scrambled to retrieve a chilling bottle of signature champagne from a patron’s refrigerator when he (isn’t it almost always a ‘he?’) forgot to bring it to the restaurant for an anniversary dinner.

Leery of tales of servers so heroic each seemed equipped with a knight’s armor and charging white horse, I wondered why Meyer would resort to such extremes when in the real world I’ve always found his service staff (at the Modern, Union Square, Gramercy Park, and Eleven Madison Park) always sincerely friendly, well-trained, and extraordinarily well-versed in wine. And requests for sauces on the side and other When Harry Met Sally-style deviations have always been delivered exactly as ordered.

Then, without design, Meyer’s message was put to the test when a friend entertaining important business clients and myself at the Modern (the pricey dining room, not the bar room) discovered after the first of many already ordered courses that his parties’ theater tickets for the sold-out hit musical Jersey Boys was for 7:00 PM, not 8:00 PM.

Despite the fact it was a busy Thursday night (in Manhattan, the busiest night of the week) with every table booked, arrangements were made for us to return to our wines and already-fired courses following the performance.

Now given Meyer’s proclaimed customer-first heroics, you may be wondering: Did Danny Meyer send a long stretch limo to take you all to the theater (about six blocks away) in the pouring rain? Did he send a bottle of Dom Perignon to enjoy during intermission?

No.

This experience occurred a few months before I read the book, but the incident did reinforce the fact that Meyer has very successfully articulated his message to his staff, and they internalized it quite well. Not because they “had” to (otherwise I’d sense it in their attitude), but apparently because they admired Meyer’s leadership enough to believe in his message and his mission.