This intimate documentary follows Danny Meyer, one of America’s preeminent restaurant owners, over a 12 year span as he struggles to open not one but two ambitious restaurants next to New York’s Madison Square Park. Tabla and Eleven Madison Park, if successful, will join Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern as the jewels in Meyer’s crown.
We follow the restaurateur and his team as they experience gut-wrenching construction delays, missed deadlines, and the firing of a chef. We visit Tabla’s chef Floyd Cardoz in his tiny home kitchen where he creates his now classic watermelon curry. We’re there as chef Kerry Heffernan takes over Eleven Madison Park just weeks before opening, and then later, after a countrywide search, when Daniel Humm is hired, leading to a coveted four star review from the New York Times, one of only six restaurants to be so honored.
Danny Meyer bares all in this portrait. Watching him and his inner circle, we witness first-hand how difficult it is to create a world-class restaurant. The Restaurateur is nothing like those reality shows. This is real.