Danny Meyer’s new Daily Provisions could be the next Shake Shack hit
Restaurant guru Danny Meyer birthed Shake Shack from a humble hot dog stand. A tiny storefront could become his next big hit as it prepares to open its fourth location this week.
It isn’t yet going national, but Daily Provisions — Meyer’s all-day cafe concept — is slowly spreading across the city with its small dining rooms for sit-down meals and brisk take-home business of prepared foods.
While Meyer wouldn’t comment on his future plans for Daily Provisions, industry analysts tell Side Dish that it has the potential to grow nationally, though on a smaller scale than Shake Shack — now a public company worth around $3.5 billion.
Shake Shack started as a hot dog stand in 2001. By 2004, it became a popular, permanent kiosk in Madison Square Park. Now it has around 250 locations around the world.
Daily Provisions isn’t quite there, but it’s opening its newest location in Hudson Yards at Brookfield’s Manhattan West on Wednesday.
One restaurant investor told Side Dish that Daily Provisions has the potential to be a national hit — though perhaps not on the same scale as Shake Shack.
“You can get a real dinner that feels gourmet and is priced accordingly,” the investor said. “It could be a big success.”
As for Meyer, he tells Side Dish that in many ways, Daily Provisions is simply a “happy accident.”
Meyer made his name with Union Square Cafe, which he launched at age 27 in 1985. When he moved its location in 2017, “a tiny, adjacent storefront” was part of the deal, he said.
“We asked ourselves what kind of gift we could give to the neighborhood and the idea for an all-day kitchen, serving really good versions of things you’d crave from breakfast through dinner was born,” Meyer said. That was Daily Provisions.
Think a neighborhood grocery-cafe where you can order coffee and crullers along with sit-down meals or prepared foods to-go — from family roast chicken dinners to sides and baked goods — all a little more healthy and upscale than fast food versions.
Daily Provisions still “shares a lot of its DNA” with Union Square Cafe, Meyer said.
Part of Daily Provisions serves as a bakery, preparing specialty breads — like a ‘sprezzatura,’ which it bakes for Union Square Cafe.
Meyer opened the second Daily Provisions on the Upper West Side. It opened just before lockdown, in the fall of 2019, and was shut down for a time before pivoting toward delivery and take out and prepared foods, Meyer said.
A West Village location opened quietly in August, though with limited hours and menu items as they’re still waiting for Con Edison to turn on the gas. Their official opening is next month. For now, the West Village location is serving mainly baked goods, including their “everything” croissants to their egg gougeres.
“We’re very excited to get the West Village and Manhattan West going, as they’ve been in the works since before COVID and it represents enormous growth,” Managing Director Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez said. “We will wait and see how these two go before saying what comes next.”
Each location will be flexible enough to adapt to its local crowd: Unlike the more residential Upper West Side and the West Village, the Manhattan West location will focus more on a returning business clientele.
“Manhattan West has a bigger kitchen and it will allow us to do more corporate catering for more of an office crowd,” Waldman Rodriguez said.
The first location, on 19th St., started with a focus on breakfast.
“The first year was all about seeing what our neighbors liked and trying to deliver a great experience,” Meyer said. “The coffee, crullers and egg sandwiches were immediate hits, and so were our lunch sandwiches and cookies. So we added dinner, and favorites emerged — like roast chicken and Brussels sprouts.”
During lockdown, Daily Provisions focused on food delivery, takeout and outdoor dining — and being a “one stop shop.”
The chain also launched a section selling goods from local producers, like Vesta Chocolate out of New Jersey, Joe Coffee, Handsome Brook Farm Eggs, and Caffe Panna Ice Cream along with DP’s own line of sauces, jams and breads.
The new space at Manhattan West will seat 25 inside and 30 people outside. The menu will offer a new strawberry cheesecake cruller as “an ode to the return” of New York, said Daily Provisions culinary director, Chef Amanda Wilson.
Meyer’s newest restaurant, Ci Siamo, will be above the Manhattan West location of Daily Provisions. That restaurant, which seats 120 people inside, opens next month. It will also feature outdoor seating for 40 people.
As for Daily Provisions, expect more to sprout up around the city, according to Meyer.
“We’re focused on being intentional about where we choose to bring Daily Provisions,” Meyer said. “Whether that’s new neighborhoods like Manhattan West or more established ones like the West Village and the Upper West Side, we want to plant our roots in neighborhoods whose residents and workforce might appreciate really good versions of food and drink.”
