I think that more and more and more really talented restauranteurs and chefs from the fine dining world are going to try their hand at fine casual. They're going to say, 'Why not us?'

When I was young, I had no choice as to what I was eating.

I think that Shake Shack wouldn't exist had it not been for Twitter. I don't think you would have gotten a hundred New Yorkers to stand in line for an hour if they couldn't have made their time really productive and organized snowball fights, ordered free hot chocolate, and, you know, Instagrammed photos.

If someone said, 'You've got to eat your next two meals at American fast-food restaurants,' I would do one meal at Chipotle and one meal at Popeyes fried chicken.

I gasp for air if I don't get to breathe Italian air once a year.

Comfort food is absolutely moving upscale.

What you can do is present existing flavors in a fresh way, in a fresh context.

How can you franchise hospitality?

When push comes to shove, baseball is one of my favorite things in the world.

Good service means never having to ask for anything.

My history has been to grow the roots as deeply as you can before going on to the next thing. That's why it took 10 years to go from Union Square Cafe to Gramercy Tavern, and another 10 years to go from Blue Smoke's first location to its second, and five to go from Shake Shack 1 to Shake Shack 2.

Gramercy Tavern appeared on the cover of New York Magazine the day we opened, and it was five deep at the bar with people who were not necessarily here to dine. They just wanted to kinda sniff out the hot, new restaurant.

The cooking standards for Italian food are less demanding than for French. All you need are some fried mozzarella and five pastas, and you're in business.

In an age when so many groups are rolling out restaurants faster than your local baker makes donuts, my goal is that each restaurant feels hand-crafted. That they have their own soul.

In one respect, it's easier to open a restaurant in New York because you get more media attention than anywhere else. Almost everyone will try a new place once, irrespective of the reviews, because it's a spectator sport.

There are three things that people pick up on the instant they walk into your home on Thanksgiving. They will be able to feel the human energy. They'll smell the food. And they will see, instantly, the table.

One great worker equals three not-so-great workers, so it's worth paying terrific people not just for today but to find people that we think have upward mobility to become tomorrow's leaders.

Earlier in my career, I needed to be the writer, casting director, set designer, leading man, and producer. I've been eliminating a lot of those jobs. I'm an executive producer right now. I still get to pick the best screenplays.

Shake Shack started off as a summer hot dog cart in Madison Square Park. It was not meant to be a company - it was completely accidental. It started off as an expression of community building.

Use your time well. Everyone gets time equally. It doesn't matter how much money you make.

I couldn't sit in a chair in an office all day.

A restaurant is a compendium of choices that the owner has made. If you look around a restaurant, everything represents a choice: the kind of salt shaker that's on the table, the art on the walls, the uniforms on the waiters.

I adore going to a very, very fancy restaurant - as long as the spirit is genuine, like it's their pleasure to welcome you.

Museums are like sports stadiums, hotels and hospitals: they are in the category of captive-audience dining.

My favorite place is whichever sidewalk is beneath my feet because I am just constantly fascinated by walking and looking and learning. If I've already walked a street five times, then the next five times I walk it looking up, and I learn something about the cornices.

You can't let challenges argue you out of doing what you know is the right thing.

It's the job of any business owner to be clear about the company's nonnegotiable core values. They're the riverbanks that help guide us as we refine and improve on performance and excellence. A lack of riverbanks creates estuaries and cloudy waters that are confusing to navigate. I want a crystal-clear, swiftly flowing stream.

My staff's job is to adjust to circumstances with technical precision and artful grace so that every patron has a wonderful experience.

A great restaurant doesn't distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes but by how well they handle those mistakes.

Some people are near- or farsighted - I'm thorn-sighted. The thorns on the rose are in really sharp definition for me, the rose petals a little fuzzier.

In order to encourage the cattle farmers to raise a herd of all-natural cattle, which is a several-year process, they have to know that it's not just Shake Shack that wants to buy it. They have to have other buyers who are willing to pay more for all natural.

I just think the best way for me to be greedy is long-term greedy.

My dad gave me the gene to enjoy cooking, and to enjoy consuming good food and wine.

One of the things that may get lost among all the hubbub when a company is 'going public' is that the business can now be owned, in part, by its greatest fans.

It's always imperative to improve and to remain dynamic - or you'll become lunch, as opposed to serving it.

A delicious meal cooked by a colleague for many others nourishes not only the body but also the soul.

I run in London, in San Francisco - any city that's got a waterfront or park.

The great thing about capitalism is that it's a system that works.

I've been in love with Washington ever since renting my very first apartment there many years ago while working as a Senate intern.

People use restaurants to do business, to do politics, to socialize.

I don't get to cook in my own restaurant.

I throw 14 parties a week.

Ninety-five percent of all brussels sprouts come from California.

The only thing I hate is when bad food is paraded as something great, and people are charging a lot for it.

I grew up in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis. Our idea of Judaism was no bar mitzvahs and a Christmas tree that had a skirt at the bottom embroidered with the names of my grandparents.

If somebody doesn't want to cook at home or has more family members than they have room for, then it's great to be in a city that's got restaurants that are actually busy on the holidays.

There are a zillion variables to a hamburger. What part of the animal went into it. What coarseness. What temperature.

You cannot open a major New York restaurant today and not be aware that showbiz will play a role.

People who have come to appreciate well-sourced and well-cooked food refuse to pay too much for food that they wouldn't want to pay anything for.

More and more, museums will look at restaurants and chefs differently - as if they are curating art.