Anyone who witnessed the rise of the fine dining movement in New York City during the 1980s and ’90s would be hard pressed to bet that Danny Meyer—who, personally, Authenticity and a laser focus on hospitality has influenced a generation of American restaurateurs – will choose an executive Red Lobster to replace him as head of its restaurant team.
Chip Wade, 59, formerly in charge of 704 Red Lobster restaurants in North America, is the new CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, started in 1985 when Mr. Meyer, 27, a Midwesterner with a degree in political science, opened Union Square Cafe in what was then not a difficult neighborhood for fine dining.
The company has grown to include 12 restaurants, a catering branch and a collection of all-day cafes called Daily Rulesand gave birth to the fast food giant Shake Shack, now worth more more than 3 billion dollars.
Putting someone else in charge is no small move for Mr. Meyer, who has every department in his company, about what bacon looks like on a sandwich.
Mr. Meyer, now 64, will continue to collaborate on menus, new restaurants and expansion strategies, and will remain as executive chairman of the group’s board, chairman of the acquiring company and partner management of the investment arm of the group. He said giving up on the sidelines of the business would help him do what he loves: providing vision for the company, mentoring the company’s chefs and appearing at numerous conferences. and more retreats.
“I am highly regarded as a restaurateur,” he said. “I will be the first to say that. But I know the things I can do really well.”
Mr. Wade, who was raised by a single mother who worked for the Scott Paper mill in Chester, Pa., has worked in restaurants since he was a teenager. At 15, he was sweeping the parking lot and washing dishes at a Dunkin’ Donuts. By the time he graduated from high school, he was doing both schedules and donuts.
Mr. Wade asked the manager what to do next. He suggested going to culinary school.
“I don’t know what the hell a cooking school is,” Mr. Wade said.
He landed at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI, when he was 17, away from home for the first time. For a child who has only seen a cow on television, learn to break half the animals are excited, he said. His family couldn’t cover all the expenses, so he worked in restaurants to pay the bills.
After graduated in 1983he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Widener University and a master’s degree in business from University of Texas at Dallas.
He spent 14 years running TGI on Fridays, and is the chief executive officer of the Boston-based company Legal sea food Chain. Then he joined the restaurant giant Dardenown Olive garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and at that time, Red Lobster. (Coporation, group sell necklaces to Golden Gate, a private equity firm in California, in 2014 for $2.1 billion.)
Mr. Wade admits that his resume has worried some customers and employees of the Union Square team. Mr Wade said in an interview: “I realized that it was a fear or an anxiety – that Chip was going to make us a chain.
It’s not that Mr. Meyer is a stranger to the chain restaurant. The little hot dog bar he opened to help revive Madison Square Park 2001 is now Shake Shack, a publicly traded company with over 400 locations. Mr. Meyer is the chairman of its board.
Mr. Meyer said the hires of Shake Shack and Mr. Wade are examples of how the historical gap between the two factions in the restaurant universe has been narrowed. For decades, he says, those who run independent fine-dining restaurants thought chain operators had no taste for food or decor, while chain owners thought those restaurant owners were don’t know how to run an efficient restaurant.
Mr. Wade, whom Mr. Meyer first hired three years ago in hopes he would eventually move into the chief executive’s chair, has made changes. The system is being improved and streamlined. That includes consolidating purchasing operations within an organization that has allowed its restaurants to operate as quasi-independent entities.
It’s a welcome change, said Hillary Sterlinghead chef at Ci Siamo in the Manhattan West complex. It is the newest star in the constellation Union Square.
“Look, we don’t all need to order individual kosher salts,” said Ms Sterling, who had to cook and interview Mr. Wade for the job.
She’s suspicious of Red Lobster’s connection, especially since she’s never been to one. But she discovered that Mr. Wade loves food, restaurant culture and an employee-first ethos almost as much as Mr. Meyer.
“This company and this industry are both emotional,” she said. “It’s all about feeling. Having a welcoming, open kitchen is really important, and he gets there. “
Michael Anthonywho has been the Gramercy Tavern’s executive chef since 2006, described Mr Wade as “very vulnerable and very genuine.”
Mr. Wade was at the crossroads of personal and professional when Mr. Meyer approached him. The two sons he and his wife, Pam Hoyt-Wade, raised are both in their 20s and starting their own lives, which for this young son includes working in the hospitality industry. Mr. Wade considered a more lucrative job with a larger restaurant conglomerate, but chose to follow Mr. Meyer instead.
“It’s my culinary roots, that’s the deciding factor for me,” he says.
“I’ve been a huge Danny Meyer fan since I read it his book in 2007 or 2008,” he said. He liked it so much that he bought 115 copies and gave it to the people who worked for him at Red Lobster, along with dozens of questions that they had to answer and send back to him to prove they had read it.
Mr. Wade and Mr. Meyer cemented their relationship during the company’s darkest year, when, in response to the pandemic, Mr. Meyer closed his restaurants and laid off 90% of staff. Shake Shack is a blow to its reputation after it took $10 million in federal Payroll Protection loans to help small businesses, at a time when restaurants large and small are struggling to get that relief. After public outcry, the company returned the money.
The two men became so in sync that they ended each other’s sentences and even showed up at the office dressed in the same clothes, Mr. Meyer said.
Mr. Wade is an avid reader and collects antique and rare books. His favorite topics include slavery, the civil rights movement in the Black Panther era, business history, and Harry S. Truman. His award is a Book of 1893 by Frederick Douglass.
Mr. Wade and his wife recently moved the family home from Orlando, Fla. His wife often travels to the city.
Because he frequents the city’s restaurants, parks, and cultural institutions, he feels a lot like New York. That feeling was reinforced when he marched in the streets with New Yorkers protesting police brutality, he said. The death of George Floyd.
Mr. Wade is a founding board member of Multicultural Hospitality & Catering Allianceand has made combating discrimination a priority in an industry that he says “sadly has significant room for both female representation and representation of people of color.”
That’s one of the reasons Mr. Meyer made the decision. “We came along when Chip needed us and we needed him,” he said.
