*By Carlo Versano* Danny Meyer is known as a visionary in the restaurant business, but his latest moonshot has nothing to do with food ー he wants to make voting cool. "You want it to be cool to vote and not cool to not vote," he told Cheddar in an interview a day ahead of the election, comparing casting a ballot to the act of quitting smoking. Whereas the cool kids all used to smoke, he noted, now it's the opposite: nonsmokers are the cool ones. Meyer is executing his vision by giving all 2,500 employees of his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant empire three hours of paid time off Tuesday to go to the polls. New York state required employers give registered voters two hours paid time to vote (with some provisions). Meyer said he's going a step further and telling his employees to vote when and how it is convenient for them. "You don't have to prove it to us." In considering ways to "make a statement" about how seriously his company was taking this civic responsibility, Meyer said he considered closing all his restaurants for lunch Tuesday ー but that would have taken money out of his workers' pockets. This initiative won't affect any paychecks or staffing. "We wanted to take away whatever obstacles there may be," Meyer said. Meyer coined the term "enlightened hospitality" to define a workplace culture that prizes both customer service and corporate responsibility. "I want our employees to be great civic citizens as well," he said. His voting initiative is part of that business strategy, which has served him well ー from his early days as owner of the popular Union Square Cafe in New York to founding Shake Shack and running some of the hottest restaurants in the Big Apple for three decades. Getting out the vote in the hospitality industry, with its younger-skewing employees, long shifts, and hourly wages, is particularly difficult, Meyer said. But until there's the "political will" to modernize our arcane voting processes, Meyer said it will be up to business leaders to create the template for change ー that starts by making sure employees don't lose money by exercising their civic duty. But then, he said, it's up to them. "You don't have a right to complain unless you vote." For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-union-square-hospitality-group-ceo-danny-meyer-is-getting-his-employees-to-the-polls).

Share:
More In Business
Michigan Judge Sentences Walmart Shoplifters to Wash Parking Lot Cars
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
State Department Halts Plan to buy $400M of Armored Tesla Vehicles
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
Goodyear Blimp at 100: ‘Floating Piece of Americana’ Still Thriving
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
Is U.S. Restaurants’ Breakfast Boom Contributing to High Egg Prices?
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
Load More