Danny Meyer

Meyer was born and raised in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis, Missouri the son of Roxanne (née Harris) and Morton L. Meyer. His father was the president of a travel, hospitality and real estate company in St. Louis. His grandfather was Chicago businessman and philanthropist, Irving B. Harris.

He attended John Burroughs School and as a child, Meyer attended Camp Nebagamon for boys in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. During college, Meyer worked for his father as a tour guide in Rome and then returned there to study international politics. Meyer was a Brother of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity while at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Trinity in 1980 with a degree in political science, Meyer worked in Chicago as Cook County field director for John Anderson's 1980 independent presidential campaign.

Meyer gained his first restaurant experience in 1984 as an assistant manager at Pesca, an Italian seafood restaurant in the Flatiron District of New York City. He then returned to Europe to study cooking as a culinary stagiaire in Italy and Bordeaux, France.

In 1985, at age 27, Meyer opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe. Meyer's other restaurants and businesses include Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, Daily Provisions, Ci Siamo, The Modern, Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 at MoMA, Maialino (formerly at the Gramercy Park Hotel), Untitled at the North End Grill, Marta, Porchlight, GreenRiver, Union Square Events, and Hospitality Quotient. Union Square Events, USHG's catering division, operates several concessions at major sports facilities including Citi Field, Saratoga Race Course, and Nationals Park.

In 2010, Meyer suffered his first restaurant closure, Tabla. In a statement, Meyer blamed the closure on the specificity of the Indian cuisine offered by the restaurant. That same year, Meyer participated in a documentary called "The Restaurateur".

In late 2011, Union Square Hospitality group sold Eleven Madison Park to its chef Daniel Humm and front-of-house director Will Guidara. In 2018, North End Grill closed.

In 2015, Meyer announced that he would eliminate tipping at all of his restaurants. The move increased prices by approximately 21 percent and led to large portions of his staff leaving the company.

In 1988, Meyer married Audrey Rayelyn Heffernan in an interfaith Roman Catholic and Jewish service at Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan. He has a daughter, Hallie Meyer, who founded Caffè Panna, an ice cream shop in New York City.

Meyer has served on the boards of Share Our Strength and City Harvest. In addition, he served as co-chair of the Union Square Partnership for five years, and as an executive committee member for NYC & Co and the Madison Square Park Conservancy.