Defining Hospitality | A Sense of Family - Sara Duffy

A Sense of Family - Sara Duffy - Episode # 037

January 19, 2022 / 41:24/E37

Sara Duffy is a Principal Partner at Stonehill & Taylor Architects. She recalls moments from her childhood at a restaurant where they treated everyone like family, and that has led her to her career in hospitality. She joins host Dan Ryan to share some of her #hospitality experiences and what it all means to her.

Takeaways:

Hospitality is the true sense of being welcome. You want to feel a sense of belonging and feeling like you are part of a family.
When designing a space, you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself into one design style. You need to think about the different kinds of people coming in and make it welcoming for all of them.
You want to work with people who might see something from a different perspective than you. They could have a point of view you never thought of.
Finding creative solutions to problems is a good idea. COVID made it so people couldn’t be together so people used video calls to talk with each other.
The routines we have are what can set us free. It’s good to be creative and step outside of your comfort zone every once in a while.
You want your employees to be happy and productive. Employees tend to be more engaged in their work when they are excited to come into work.
Broaden your horizons. There are so many opportunities in life and work, it’s important to grab them and take advantage of them. You’ll never know where they lead.

Quote of the Show:

7:29 ”When I was a kid growing up on the upper west side of New York. There was this really terrific Italian restaurant that we went to on 79th street. Every Friday night and they knew us.

It was kind of like, cheers. Everybody knows your name. I loved it there and I think that was my first sort of foray into the true sense of being welcomed into a space and true hospitality. And they were so nice to me. I would get tired at the end of the night and they would let me sleep across two chairs or they'd let me sit at the bar and watch TV and talk to the bartender. It was just like I was supposed to be there.”

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