"On a Saturday afternoon in 1970 in St. Louis, Missouri, an entrepreneur named Morton Meyer put his young son Danny to work as he wrote newsletters to his clients. Danny was 12 years-old and tasked with stuffing those newsletters into envelopes, licking them closed, and stamping them to be mailed. It's a memory that bubbled up when he opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe, on October 21, 1985, when he was 27 years old."
"In October 1988, a couple years after the opening, Meyer sat down at his electric Smith-Corona typewriter in his basement office of the original East 16th Street location, where upstairs chef Michael Romano cooked tuna burgers and Bibb salads, and typed his first newsletter. It was the beginning of a monthly ritual, after which he'd mail them to 100,000 people whose addresses he collected through written comment cards diners would fill out at their tables after eating."
"Earlier this month, Meyer celebrated its 40th anniversary; today Union Square Cafe is still a New York City icon. It's one of nine restaurants outside the Shake Shack empire under Meyer's umbrella, a group that includes Gramercy Tavern, the View, Daily Provisions, Ci Siamo, Manhatta, The Modern, Porchlight, and soon its first Detroit property, Hudson's Detroit, set to open in 2026. (His group also launched Tabla, Blue Smoke, and Eleven Madison Park)."
Danny Meyer remembers stuffing newsletters at age 12 while his father Morton Meyer wrote them in St. Louis in 1970. Danny opened Union Square Cafe on October 21, 1985, at age 27. In October 1988 he typed his first newsletter on an electric Smith-Corona and began a monthly mailing to 100,000 addresses gathered from written comment cards diners filled out at their tables. Meyer later found the newsletters from the 1980s to 2009 kept in his mother's home. Union Square Cafe marked its 40th anniversary and remains a New York City icon amid a growing restaurant group expanding to Detroit in 2026.
#union-square-cafe #danny-meyer #restaurant-newsletters #new-york-dining-history #hospitality-expansion
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