One of my guilty pleasures is the TV show Bar Rescue. I think Jon Taffer is brilliant, even with all the shouting. The way he storms into a failing bar and turns it around feels like ‘operations theater.’ He brings a scientific approach to running a restaurant: food cost percentages, profit margins on mixed drinks versus bottled beer, benchmarking against local income levels. If you don’t know those numbers, you’re not truly managing your business.

And yet, even with Taffer’s systems and publicity, most “rescued” bars fail. That got me thinking: can a business truly be cost-effective, operationally sound, and customer-friendly, all at once?

That question came back to me when I picked up a copy of Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara. Guidara’s story is about Eleven Madison Park, a New York fine-dining restaurant that rose from being ranked 50th in the world to #1 in 2017. Their journey wasn’t just about the food; it was about vision, systems, guest experience, and leadership. 

Vision and Systems

In 2010, Guidara and his chef-partner, Daniel Humm, attended the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. They came in dead last but they left with a vision: We will become number one. 

Unlike many fine-dining establishments that focus solely on the food, Eleven Madison Park focused equally on the dining room experience and the people and systems that supported it. They developed processes for everything, including hand signals between staff to avoid interrupting guests, precise timing for delivering checks without making customers feel rushed, and careful employee onboarding methods to ensure consistency.

That obsession with systems translates perfectly to operational roles. Process discipline isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about freeing up capacity to focus on the small touches that elevate the experience for stakeholders and customers.

The 95-5 Rule

One of Guidara’s early insights came before Eleven Madison Park, when he ran a gelato cart at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He insisted on buying tiny, imported blue spoons that he described as “preposterously expensive” but perfect for the guest experience.

He justified the splurge with his 95-5 rule: manage 95 percent of costs with ruthless efficiency, and reserve 5 percent for purposeful extravagance. That 5 percent can have an outsized impact on the customer’s perception.

For procurement, this idea could win over budget-resistant stakeholders. Imagine telling marketing, “If we manage 95 percent of your spend tightly, we can give you 5 percent to spend almost foolishly—but with intent.” It reframes savings as a path to delight rather than deprivation.

What Unreasonable Hospitality Really Means

Early in the book, Guidara writes about a guest who kept leaving his table to feed a parking meter. A staff member quietly took over the task so the guest could enjoy his meal uninterrupted. That spirit of anticipating needs became deliberate. Guidara began training staff to look for moments to surprise and delight.

In business, unreasonable hospitality doesn’t have to be elaborate. It might be carving out time to brainstorm with a stakeholder or giving a supplier unexpected positive feedback. The key is creating systems that handle 95 percent of the routine work, leaving space for creative, human touches.

Excellence in the “Last Inch”

I see Guidara’s “last inch” in hospitality as being just like the “final mile” in a supply chain. After all the planning, sourcing, cooking, and plating, if a server sets the dish down carelessly, the moment is diminished. We have to slow down and get it right.

As he says, “Excellence is the culmination of thousands of details executed perfectly.” And that pursuit can be uncomfortable. Most people won’t have the persistence to sustain it. But for those who do, it can become a defining competitive advantage.

Resilience Through Adversity

The 2008 recession forced Eleven Madison Park to make hard choices.They switched to less expensive chef hats, offered affordable lunches, and cut costs without hurting the guest experience. Ironically, the lunches brought in younger diners who would later become loyal customers.

They also weathered bad reviews by absorbing the emotional hit and then redirecting their energy into improvement. This is a leadership skill in any industry: resist defensiveness, address real issues, and turn challenges into opportunities.

The Fragility of Success

Here’s the sobering part. After achieving their #1 goal, Guidara left the partnership. The pandemic hit, tipping was eliminated, the menu became strictly plant-based, and staff turnover spiked. The restaurant remains open, but it’s no longer performing at its peak.

The takeaway? Vision, systems, customer experience, and leadership have to work together continuously. Without the right leader at the right time, even the best operations can fade. That is true whether you are running a dive bar, a procurement team, or the world’s top restaurant.

Unreasonable Hospitality isn’t just a restaurant book. It’s a blueprint for elevating any operation. Manage the 95 percent with precision, invest the 5 percent with purpose, obsess over the last inch, and bring your whole team along for the journey. That’s how you go from good to great - and stay there.

By Kelly Barner

Keywords: Management, Procurement, Supply Chain

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