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Dan Kluger

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79

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2018-11-13

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2018-11-13

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1. “But I could literally be. Looking at a magazine and see a picture of something, not even read the caption, no idea what I'm looking at, but for whatever reason something sparks. And close a magazine kind of like never think about that again, but that made me think, I really want to do something with Lamb. I haven't done anything with lamb in a while. And then pull from either childhood memories or pull from a dish that I've done years before, and that becomes something. And for this restaurant, there was a lot of all of those things coming together. I wanted this restaurant to sort of be a little bit of an exploration, a little bit of a celebration, so to speak, of restaurants I worked at in the city. I've only worked in the city. I don't have a cultural background like Danielle, Jean-Georges, Marcus Samuelson, et cetera. I didn't have.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

2. “We know that English peas are coming to an end and that tomatoes are about to happen and strawberries are at the market and have to work on something. And so then it's kind of like either going to the market or going downstairs and sort of like just forcing yourself to again have this tactile experience of touching and looking and thinking about things. And sometimes it's literally like walking down the state, somebody station and picking up a tomato and then going to the next station, eating a piece of cheese and then going to the next station like taking a little piece of ginger and thinking, oh wait, all those have kind of like created something interesting in my mouth right now. And I wasn't planning on a dish, but it became something. And then I think the other one that sometimes happens, and again, it really spawns off of there's a need to change something.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

3. “So that can start the process. That's one portion of it. And again, I mean, I can think of examples of walking through the farmer's market and picking up some tomatoes and then picking up some peaches. And I love the combination of peach tomato and then picking up some fennel and some onions and thinking about like doing something with all those things together and coming back and working on something and making it a dish. So that's obviously one way and it's again very tactile. It's very much in the moment of the inspiration. I also think sometimes it's driven by a need. We know that”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

4. “For me, A few different ways, a few different things that kind of come together, and sometimes we're very seasonally driven. We use a lot of the local farmers, Unisware Farmers Market and all sorts of other farmers that deliver to us. Things are coming in season, walking through the farmer's market and you know having this tactile experience of picking up something and then picking up something else and smelling aromas in the air and kind of like, I mean, literally it could be you could pick something up and you have a flash.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

5. “And to some extent, the experience, yeah. And, you know, again, that leads to finding other people that want to be part of that as well. I don't know if it's necessarily uncommon. Those things go together, but it is definitely less common. And I think, you know, there's plenty of incredible chefs that I know that really, you know, they want the front house experience to be great, but they're not really that concerned about what's the overall package. And I think as you go back to attrition, I think as you watch, there's less and less of those around. I think more and more people are saying, I do want to be part of the whole package and I want to find a partner front of the house or front of the house guy, finding a partner in a chef that, again, has those same sort of wants and needs of full creation and being involved. And full creation doesn't mean it's narrow-minded. It can still be a team. But being able to say, we really want to do all this stuff. I don't want to just.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

6. “I still have them today. And they were just this cool shape that I went to the guy that I was friends with that I knew would do the plates. I said, I want to base it off of this. So the creativity, you know, obviously we need to always be creating food. I don't think that necessarily gets old, or we burn out on it, but always wanting something new. And so the idea of now starting to create a restaurant and create plates and create the atmosphere and the playlists and all these different things. It was just one more thing to.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

7. “I mean, I think obviously there's a number of amazing ones. Jean-Georges being one of them, Danielle Balud being another, Wolfgang Puck. I mean, there's plenty, some of which have done big empires and some have done small. I think a lot of us have that creative bug that doesn't just end with the food. It goes into the dining experience in some form or another. And again, for me, what were the glasses? What were the plates? I had a vision very early on of what I wanted the plates to be based on a bowl that might set a bowl as my parents gave me when I went off to college and said, you know, here, we got these in Vermont. really nice little bowls and you can use them for cereal or whatever in your dorm room”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

8. “So, I think while I was there, I was around some of the best CEOs, entrepreneurs in the world. And I just really kind of spent more and more time thinking about, I want to do this, I want to do this. And I worked on a business plan back in, I think, 2006, 2007. And it was right when stock market crashed and I knew I wasn't going to raise any money. And I also felt like I'm still young, and as much as I want to do something, it's maybe not the right time. And I was very fortunate enough to meet Jean-Georges at the farmer's market and went to go work for him and was incredibly happy with what I was doing. But again, there was always this kind of like burning need to do my own thing.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

9. “And you're responsible for numbers. And I think this was a really amazing experience because it was a private membership club that, you know, it was hard. I couldn't invite friends to eat. I think my family came once in the four plus years I was there. It was private for a reason. And I think in some respects that was beneficial because it made me have to work that much harder getting staff because nobody really knew anything about it. There was no New York Times review. There's no blog posts about it. So it made me really kind of, I think, work on this philosophy of creating a tight-knit group of people, the employees. And I mean, some of them are still here with me today, and that was 2005.”

   2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

10. “Ultimately, I think from his. Early on is End of my time at Tabla, I started thinking about I'd like to own something. I'm committed 100%. That's what I want to do. But I really want to not only call the shots, but I want to build something from scratch. I've always enjoyed that idea whether it's the physical building or just the philosophical build something from scratch. And so I was working at this private membership club called the Core Club. It was an amazing experience where I was the chef. And again, while I wasn't owner, I was there long enough and in a position high enough that I couldn't help but feel ownership over it”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

11. “Lot more places, and we're probably exposed to many more things than I ever will be. So in some respects, I'm sorry I didn't get that experience. But there's also something to be said about honing your skill in one place. And gave me the opportunity to sort of like take ownership. Every place I was at. I spent so long there Hard not to feel like an owner.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

12. “Of my career, you know, I learned so much from reading these books and from experiencing food and food that was being done all over the country, anywhere from that point in time, early 90s to 20, 30 years before that. But I think there is something really important about in any field not getting to top too quickly and really paying your dues somewhere. And I maybe I'm not I maybe didn't do it the best way in the sense that I spent a lot of time in a very few number of places. I spent three plus years at Uniscrac Cafe. I spent seven years at Tablea. I spent I think four and a half years at the Core Club. I spent five years with Jean-Georges and ABC and now I'm doing my own thing. And I know a lot of other people who did a lot less and saw.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

13. “There is so much of that, and I don't think that anybody necessarily thinks they're experts, but Better or for worse, there's so many opportunities now to learn right away. Read book upon book upon book. And I get caught up today in YouTube videos and these amazing food websites that it's like just like that black hole of the internet. You just keep going and going and going. And it's exciting to learn. And I think back if I had had that when I was starting out, I probably wouldn't have read any of these books, which would have been... Detrimental.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

14. “I think so I mean, I could find four different examples, whether it's filleting a fish or butchering a chicken. Or turning an artichoke or something like that solid cooks have not been experienced. Do this yet. They went to school and they butchered one chicken or they butchered six chickens, but they haven't done a hundred. They haven't done 10 cases. They haven't done it 20 pieces every day for six months to the point where they have now pushed themselves to get so much better. And it goes back to the whole apprenticeship thing, right? I mean, if you think back old world, somebody, any kind of craftsman, any kind of job where you had to learn a skill, you sort of started from the bottom and you worked your way up. If you were a shoemaker, you didn't just start making shoes on day one. You had to work your way up. If you were somebody working with steel, again, you had to work your way up.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

15. “I'm all very valid, and I think the War of Attrition is certainly a very valid point. It's a reason why. Don't know. I think I. Grew up in the industry with a lot of very talented people, and many of which have gone on to become chefs. But I also can look around and see so many people that I would have thought would be a chef, and they're not today. They went to do something different because it is a tough industry. I do think there's something to be said for working your way up. And it's not necessarily lowest to the low, but that almost sounds derogatory, but. There's something missing today about a cook that doesn't know how to peel a potato properly. They don't know how to run a dishwasher.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

16. “I mean, I think in general today, we probably accommodate a lot more than restaurants would have 15 years ago. Again, taking a relationship or a restaurant similar to any Union Square hospitality restaurant. But an average restaurant, they wouldn't have done something like that. They wouldn't go out and get a newspaper for a regular sitting at the bar that has nothing to read. They wouldn't do those little things. But now I think we do so much to try and accommodate. And it's not to win this war. It's just, you're here and I'm happy you're here. It is a little bit of a transaction. But I also think we're at a point where the industry is in a position of raising costs and all these different things that are affecting us that the accommodations still need to happen, but they need to happen on a sort of non-financial side, you know?”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

17. “Things like, and again, I saw a lot at Union Square, but took a lot of it to Tabla and have taken it on since then back 1998. If you parked on the street, you had to put coins in the meters. And I remember guessed at Union Square, and this was when I was working in front of the house saying, I need some change to go put money in the meter. And I said, here, I'll get it for you from the bartender. So why don't you just tell me where your car is? And they didn't have to give me a key at that point in time. And I'll do it for you. Well, no, no, you don't need to do that. Want to interrupt your meal? Why don't you sit down and enjoy your meal? Just tell me your car is, and we'll take care of it for you. And I think those little things were things that people didn't really do”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

18. “Opportunity to see people you haven't seen in a long time. Sometimes it's a business meeting, whatever it is. Ultimately, the dining is a means to an end. They were really at the forefront of how do we make this special? And it was always just little things. And I think that's always been something that I've taken away. And I mean, again, I remember how little things had nothing to do with the actual food, but where the experience. Change an experience for somebody drastically. Can”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

19. “I think it's all about how do you take a very average experience? Most of us go out to eat. It's a means to an end. Your boys are sitting at the bar now. They're going to have something later. It's literally a means to an end. They're here with you. We're doing this. They're going to get something to eat. They don't really care what, when, where, and how. They just want something. And sometimes we go out because we want to experience something, it's an anniversary, it's a celebration. Sometimes it is”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

20. “I imagine again he didn't start, but he was sort of pioneer, so to speak, in terms of taking big restaurants and making them work this way. But I think the biggest thing that he's known for, or at least that we got from it, we being people that work there even today, but certainly at that time this hospitality, this feeling of really trying to blow a guest away. What does that mean?”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

21. “The service based culture, but really taking care of people, both as your employee and as guests. And I think the taking care of employees, ultimately it's a job and ultimately we have to make money. I think they did a lot to try and make us feel good, whether it was doing family meal, doing what we kind of refer to now as lineup, which is where the whole front house staff and we also do in the kitchen. They line up and we talk about what's going to happen for the day and really, you know, just like a big organization probably has small team meetings. It's really no different. But in the restaurants, it's not always that common. Now I think it is. And I think he certainly was probably didn't create that, but at the forefront of it. And, you know, looking at things like the tip pools and all these different things that I think”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

22. “I mean, he's an amazing person, truly amazing. And I was very fortunate that when I started at Union Square Cafe, I think Grammy Tavern had opened two years prior, maybe somewhere around there. Not even. So he was still very much, you know, involved in Union Square Cafe. Paul Bowles Bevin, who was his managing partner, was, I mean, really one of the best people I've ever met in my life and really grasped hospitality from the customer side to the employee side really was just a wonderful person to work with. And so I was at this forefront of Danny and Paul and even Michael Romano and all these people that really believed it, practiced it, and helped me experience it. And that's the”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

23. “This is my creation, my baby. All the blood, literally blood sweat, and tears. I've gone into it. So I think, you know, for one, if I'd worked probably any decent restaurant front of the house, I think that experience of being customer facing and enjoying customer interactions would help shape where I am today. But I think working for Danny Meyer and really being a believer in this hospitality.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

24. “Well, I think it certainly helped with what we do in the kitchen, but I think it helped more with where I am today and the path that I've taken in terms of really wanting to be a chef owner and create my own thing from start to finish.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

25. “And then was promoted to, I think, oysters and sandwiches. And then I was doing making all the fresh pastas. And I kept working my way up. And I spent just under three years there as a line cook and then moved on to open table as a line cook with Floyd Cardot. And so it really was just somewhere around that point that I took this from, it's interesting and I'm enjoying doing it to I think I'm actually good at this and I should pursue this as a career. It was really right around that time of finishing at Union Square and opening Tableau somewhere in there that I started to look at other opportunities that I want to cook at a small restaurant. Did I want to do purchasing and do more of a corporate thing? Did I want to get involved with other aspects of kitchen and restaurant business but not be cooking? Because I just wasn't sure. And Tableau was an amazing.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

26. “At that point in time, it was Sagat's number one restaurant in the country or city, whatever it was at that point, year after year. So it certainly was not, I wasn't walking in some small little restaurant. I mean, this was eye-opening. And I enjoyed the front of the house experience a lot, but the idea of being in the kitchen was intriguing. So I spent a little time in my days off just to kind of understand what was going on. And at some point, they offered me a job as a prep cook. So I was making $8.50 an hour peeling potatoes, cleaning calamari I worked with. The prep crew was strictly Spanish speaking. I didn't speak one word of Spanish, so it was really like, again, very kind of cultural shock for me. And I did that for about three months, four months and started really getting into the idea of it, but still was just a prep cook. I mean, I didn't know where it would go to.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

27. “About the idea of doing some packaging products, things like that. So I'm just kind of biding my time, trying to figure out what was going to be the next path. And I decided on my days off to hang out in the kitchen to learn a little about what that was like at Union Square, at Union Square Cafe. Huge kitchen, or not huge kitchen, but very busy kitchen.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

28. “Graduated, and it was not a culinary program by any means, but we did some cooking, and it was right at another, I think stock market crash, downturns of the economy. And they made some cutbacks, and the teacher or the professor that did all the cooking classes and all the extracurricular activities with cooking, he got laid off. And so I became sort of a TA and I ended up taking over some of those glasses and getting really involved with cooking and just taught myself how to get through it and was working with other cooks on how to do these projects we did. But again, never thought it would be the path I would choose. Went back to Union Square Cafe after I graduated to do some work in the front of the house, host Maitre D, that kind of thing, and thought maybe there'd be something else for me to work on using my degree really was excited.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

29. “I don't really know. I guess it's better to give a little quick history. I went to Syracuse University, not expecting to have anything to do with food, and thought I was going to do physical therapy and ended up taking a bunch of nutrition, food science classes as a prerequisite for it. And then I kind of started to catch this little bug. And through that, I was open to this lecture series that we put on and I met a number of amazing entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, one of which was Danny Meyer. And so I went to work for him as an intern, college internship, came back for my, I guess, my senior year and really started to get this excitement over it and realized that this is something that I could see myself doing, being involved in a restaurant. I didn't really know in what capacity.”

    2018-11-13 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · #45 Dan Kluger: Taking Time to Get It Right · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT