I opened Union Square Cafe when I was just 27 years old, and my first hope was simply that it would stay in business. My higher hope was that in its lifetime, it might grow to play an essential role in the lives of its stakeholders.

A great restaurant is one that just makes you feel like you're not sure whether you went out or you came home and confuses you. If it can do both of those things at the same time, you're hooked.

If you're constantly making business decisions on behalf of your investors first, ultimately you're going to wear down your other stakeholders. It's going to be potentially hurtful for your employees and your customers and the community you do business with.

Hospitality knows no gender or race.

'Fine casual' means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.

If you develop a dialogue with me and take an interest in me, I'll want to give you the business. It's human nature.

During one of his uncannily well-timed impromptu visits to my restaurant, Union Square Cafe, Pat Cetta taught me how to manage people. Pat was the owner of a storied New York City steakhouse called Sparks, and by that time, he was an old pro at running a fine restaurant.

Hospitality exists when you believe that the other person is on your side.

The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.

Human nature doesn't change. When enough people are comfortable enough financially, there is going to be human nature that wants to spend more money on better quality and, to some degree, status symbols as well.

Festive cocktails mean color, lots of color.

Steak and its accompaniments - wine, vegetables, potatoes and generous desserts - is a primal source of pleasure to which many people can relate.

Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It's all about hiring the right people.

You wouldn't have the same art on the walls at every restaurant or the same waiter uniforms. Neither should you have the same service style at every restaurant.

Union Square Cafe is all soul, not brain.

Constant, gentle pressure is my preferred technique for leadership, guidance, and coaching.

A cocktail done right can really show your guests that you care.

At the base level, a burger is a piece of meat and a bun with something on it. It's simple but it seems to make a lot of people happy.

Life is a series of waves to be embraced and overcome.

Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.

I've been fighting BDS before people even knew that BDS existed.

I'm very non-partisan. I don't consider myself loyal to any party in Israel.

Politics is, by its nature, not my favorite thing because it's more about dividing people, not bringing them together.

Israel, for me, represents so much more than a nation. It's a very idealized example for the world. It's not just a nation that needs to be strong, secure, and safe. For me, for the sake of humanity, Israel needs to be a light that is an example to all nations.