Now the author of the best-selling Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business is raising the bar on how to shutter a restaurant by orchestrating a three-month sendoff. And in a field in which employees are lucky to receive a few days' warning that they're losing their jobs, Mr. Meyer is going to extraordinary lengths to help Tabla's 90 full-time staff find new positions before the last meal is served on Dec. 30.
“It's not something I necessarily want to become an expert in,” Mr. Meyer says, laughing. “But the measure of our company should not just be about how we open restaurants. We need to distinguish ourselves by how we close a place.”
Restaurants typically close with little or no notice. Some skip out in the middle of the night to avoid creditors. Some—like La Caravelle, which closed in 2004 after a 43-year run—give customers a grace period of a week or so to enjoy a final meal.
