
Yes Is the Answer. What Is the Question?
How Faith in People and a Culture of Hospitality Built a Modern American Restaurant Company
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Barry G. Bernson
-
By:
-
Cameron Mitchell
About this listen
Cameron Mitchell’s “dish room to boardroom story” began when he was 16-years-old and started working as a dishwasher at a local steakhouse in Columbus, Ohio. Two years later, when Mitchell was working as a line cook during a chaotic shift change, he had an epiphany. He realized he loved the restaurant business and set out to make it his lifelong career. He knew he wanted to be the president of a restaurant company, one day.
That evening, he put pen to paper to map out his career goals, waking his mother in the middle of the night to share them with her. Those goals - to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA), become an executive chef by age 23, be a restaurant general manager by age 24, and, ultimately, become the president of a company by the age of 35 - eventually were the benchmarks that would set the course of his restaurant industry career.
In 2008, Mitchell’s prominence in the industry increased exponentially when he guided the sale of two of his most popular concepts - Mitchell’s Fish Market and Mitchell’s Steakhouse and a total of 22 restaurants - to Ruth’s Hospitality Group for $92 million.
To this day, CMR remains independent and privately held, recognizing nearly $200 million in annual revenue from its 34 restaurants and catering division. This audiobook tells the story of Mitchell's rapid rise, his rags to riches story and lessons that any entrepreneur or anyone can learn from it.
©2019 Ideapress Publishing (P)2019 Ideapress PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
Unreasonable Hospitality
- The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than They Expect
- By: Will Guidara
- Narrated by: Will Guidara
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world. How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation? Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality.
-
-
A Stratification What it Means to Be of Service
- By Amazon Customer on 10-31-22
By: Will Guidara
-
Setting the Table
- The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
- By: Danny Meyer
- Narrated by: Danny Meyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Danny Meyer started Union Square Cafe when he was 27, with a good idea and scant experience. He is now the CEO of one of the world's most dynamic restaurant organizations, one that includes 11 unique dining establishments, each at the top of its game. How did he do it? How has he consistently beaten the odds in one of the toughest trades around?
-
-
ABRIDGED VERSION!?
- By Gregg Strader on 02-19-18
By: Danny Meyer
-
Your Restaurant Sucks!
- Embrace the Suck. Unleash Your Restaurant. Become Outstanding
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the horrific failure rates of restaurants, how can you ensure yours will not only survive but grow and thrive? If your restaurant sucks, it is because you suck at running it; 100 percent. Donald Burns, author of Your Restaurant Sucks has created a methodology and mindset honed from his Special Operations training in the US Air Force. As a Pararescueman, his training developed a keen sense of purposeful and fast decision making. In the military, he learned the phrase, "embrace the suck".
-
-
A must for restaurants!
- By William on 10-07-21
By: Donald Burns
-
Your Restaurant Culture Sucks!
- Stop Surviving. Start Thriving. Escape Mediocrity. (Your Restaurant Sucks Trilogy, Book 3)
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Continuing with his successful Your Restaurant Sucks series, Donald Burns, The Restaurant Coach, digs down to the root of all business problems and that is culture. All restaurants can buy from the same vendors and hire from the same labor pool. What separates the good, from the great to the outstanding is culture!
-
-
You need this book!!!
- By Ed Q on 08-29-23
By: Donald Burns
-
Made from Scratch
- The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse
- By: Kent Taylor
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Made from Scratch, the late business maverick Kent Taylor tells the legendary story of Texas Roadhouse and in the process reveals its recipe for success: embracing unorthodox business practices. Because isn’t it a little unusual for a company to do almost no advertising? Is it wild to give away free peanuts and rolls and keep prices low, even as costs rise, or to keep the menu basically the same since it opened? Does it fly in the face of reason to prohibit coats and ties at headquarters and to have a CEO who dressed like he was part of the landscaping crew?
-
-
rock on
- By Eric Bourgeois on 09-16-21
By: Kent Taylor
-
Good to Great
- Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Built To Last, the defining management study of the 90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
-
-
Good info, over-the-top narration
- By Anaxamaxan on 08-31-10
By: Jim Collins
-
Unreasonable Hospitality
- The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than They Expect
- By: Will Guidara
- Narrated by: Will Guidara
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world. How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation? Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality.
-
-
A Stratification What it Means to Be of Service
- By Amazon Customer on 10-31-22
By: Will Guidara
-
Setting the Table
- The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
- By: Danny Meyer
- Narrated by: Danny Meyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Danny Meyer started Union Square Cafe when he was 27, with a good idea and scant experience. He is now the CEO of one of the world's most dynamic restaurant organizations, one that includes 11 unique dining establishments, each at the top of its game. How did he do it? How has he consistently beaten the odds in one of the toughest trades around?
-
-
ABRIDGED VERSION!?
- By Gregg Strader on 02-19-18
By: Danny Meyer
-
Your Restaurant Sucks!
- Embrace the Suck. Unleash Your Restaurant. Become Outstanding
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the horrific failure rates of restaurants, how can you ensure yours will not only survive but grow and thrive? If your restaurant sucks, it is because you suck at running it; 100 percent. Donald Burns, author of Your Restaurant Sucks has created a methodology and mindset honed from his Special Operations training in the US Air Force. As a Pararescueman, his training developed a keen sense of purposeful and fast decision making. In the military, he learned the phrase, "embrace the suck".
-
-
A must for restaurants!
- By William on 10-07-21
By: Donald Burns
-
Your Restaurant Culture Sucks!
- Stop Surviving. Start Thriving. Escape Mediocrity. (Your Restaurant Sucks Trilogy, Book 3)
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Continuing with his successful Your Restaurant Sucks series, Donald Burns, The Restaurant Coach, digs down to the root of all business problems and that is culture. All restaurants can buy from the same vendors and hire from the same labor pool. What separates the good, from the great to the outstanding is culture!
-
-
You need this book!!!
- By Ed Q on 08-29-23
By: Donald Burns
-
Made from Scratch
- The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse
- By: Kent Taylor
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Made from Scratch, the late business maverick Kent Taylor tells the legendary story of Texas Roadhouse and in the process reveals its recipe for success: embracing unorthodox business practices. Because isn’t it a little unusual for a company to do almost no advertising? Is it wild to give away free peanuts and rolls and keep prices low, even as costs rise, or to keep the menu basically the same since it opened? Does it fly in the face of reason to prohibit coats and ties at headquarters and to have a CEO who dressed like he was part of the landscaping crew?
-
-
rock on
- By Eric Bourgeois on 09-16-21
By: Kent Taylor
-
Good to Great
- Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
- By: Jim Collins
- Narrated by: Jim Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Built To Last, the defining management study of the 90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
-
-
Good info, over-the-top narration
- By Anaxamaxan on 08-31-10
By: Jim Collins
-
Your Table Is Ready
- Tales of a New York City Maître D'
- By: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Narrated by: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world. Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own.
-
-
Accurately crass and heart felt
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-23
-
How to Win Friends & Influence People
- By: Dale Carnegie
- Narrated by: Andrew MacMillan
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You can go after the job you want...and get it! You can take the job you have...and improve it! You can take any situation you're in...and make it work for you!
-
-
This is well worth listening too! Main points are.
- By Ralph on 10-21-11
By: Dale Carnegie
-
Extreme Ownership
- How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
- By: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- Narrated by: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An updated edition of the blockbuster best-selling leadership book that took America and the world by storm, two US Navy SEAL officers who led the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War demonstrate how to apply powerful leadership principles from the battlefield to business and life.
-
-
I don't read SEAL Books...
- By Amazon Customer on 02-21-17
By: Jocko Willink, and others
-
The New One Minute Manager
- By: Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 1 hr and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades The One Minute Manager has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book's publication. The exponential rise of technology, global flattening of markets, instant communication, and pressures on corporate workforces to do more with less - including resources, funding, and staff - have all revolutionized the world in which we live and work.
-
-
Not bad, but not enough value
- By Chad on 09-30-19
By: Ken Blanchard, and others
-
Start with Why
- How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inspirational best seller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our why. Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time - with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the why of their organization. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever.
-
-
Useless Dribble
- By Chimdi Azubuike on 03-10-18
By: Simon Sinek
-
Traction
- Get a Grip on Your Business
- By: Gino Wickman
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you? All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations: personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It’s not complicated or theoretical.
-
-
this is for 50+ employee companies, not small ones
- By Ryan Taft on 03-06-18
By: Gino Wickman
-
Eat a Peach
- A Memoir
- By: David Chang, Gabe Ulla
- Narrated by: David Chang
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure. Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles David Chang’s switchback path. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.
-
-
So many threads coming into a wonderful tapstery.
- By Suzie on 09-12-20
By: David Chang, and others
-
The Surprise Restaurant Manager
- By: Ken McGarrie
- Narrated by: Fabio Viviani, Ken McGarrie
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Surprise - you’re in charge now! Steady money and new opportunities awaited as you moved up from server or bartender to front-of-house manager. But too often, restaurant management find themselves leading with minimal training, a ton of responsibilities, and no clue how to improve. You’ve run the Friday night rush, you’ve juggled expectations of staff and guests - but have you figured out how to improve while keeping the restaurant profitable?
-
-
A must have for managers
- By antonius h van vuurden on 08-29-24
By: Ken McGarrie
-
Know What Matters
- Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations
- By: Ron Shaich
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ron Shaich is a business visionary who has been part of building three iconic restaurant brands: Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread, and now Cava. Along the way, he developed "fast casual," a $100 billion-plus segment of the industry. Now he reveals what he learned about entrepreneurship, running large enterprises, business transformation, and life itself. He illustrates these lessons with his experiences turning a small cookie store into 2,400 restaurants with $5 billion in revenue, delivering annual investor returns of 25% over two decades, and outperforming both Starbucks and Chipotle.
-
-
Inspiration with purpose
- By J Timothy Smith on 01-25-25
By: Ron Shaich
-
The Great Game of Business, Expanded and Updated
- The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company
- By: Jack Stack, Bo Burlingham
- Narrated by: Jack Stack, Stephen Baker
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Great Game of Business started a business revolution by introducing the world to open-book management, a new way of running a business that created unprecedented profit and employee engagement. The revised and updated edition of The Great Game of Business lays out an entirely different way of running a company.
-
-
An update on a clap
- By Richard Bagley on 08-04-15
By: Jack Stack, and others
-
Your Restaurant STILL Sucks!
- Stop Playing Small. Get What You Want. Become a Badass.
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author and world-renowned restaurant coach Donald Burns brings his straightforward advice on how to get the restaurant you want. His knowledge in running a restaurant not only comes from his technical skills, but also his nearly four decades of real-life restaurant experience as a restaurateur and working with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Your Restaurant STILL Sucks! is not your usual guide on how to run a restaurant. Instead, it will challenge you to rethink the way you look at how you run your restaurant. This book is for those who want a better restaurant and a better life.
-
-
Best book ever
- By Carlos Ortiz on 01-24-22
By: Donald Burns
-
Make It Happen
- A Tiny Book for Building a Big Restaurant Business
- By: Ryan Gromfin
- Narrated by: Ryan Gromfin
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Make It Happen explodes the myth that the restaurant business is harder than other industries. It challenges the belief that you must be in your restaurant all day every day just so things get done right.
-
-
Can’t wait to implement Ryan’s strategies
- By Amazon Customer on 03-18-25
By: Ryan Gromfin
What listeners say about Yes Is the Answer. What Is the Question?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RN
- 07-29-24
Insightful and honest
Very helpful insights, and open and honest about stickers and failures. Highly recommend to all entrepreneurs!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Byron Diaz
- 07-06-24
Transparent
I Enjoyed hearing about the highs and lows in life and in business. Also making some of the same mistakes twice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-19-22
Absolutely Awe Struck!
Cameron Mitchell's teenage years and unwavering love of the industry resemble my own. This book eloquently states his dedication to his team and putting people first, something I struggle to convey in my business plan. I felt his sincerity in his words and knew they were not just "catch phrases". He has clearly created the work environment I've always longed for yet never had! The driving force of my Why for wanting my restaurant.
Specifically, in chapter 10, how he talks about the seemingly small acts that gave Huge impacts on his team member's personal lives is a great inspiration to me and my "why". His generosity drove me to tears knowing that my goal of owning my restaurant is to give my team the work environment they've never had but always deserved! People truly are the driving force of this industry!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carlos Ortiz
- 12-08-21
Great great book
I’m a owner of busy restaurant in Ohio, but this book will help me to improve my business. Thank u for write this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BigMadMac
- 03-20-21
Amazing- Thank You
COLUMBUS IS LUCKY TO HAVE A PROFESSIONAL THAT CARES ABOUT THE AREA. IF EVERYONE COULD ADAPT HIS “YES” CONCEPT
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- roman
- 07-05-23
Excellent
If you work in the industry and are looking for some new found inspiration to keep going, give this book a listen you won't regret it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nobody
- 05-29-23
Sorry, CM comes across way to arrogant for me.
This is the first review I have ever posted on Audible even though I have been a customer way before they were acquired by Amazon. I grew up in the restaurant business in Atlanta at the age of 13 (before child labor laws ( - : and have known many Restauranteur’s (Truett Cathy, etc.) so I came to appreciate the leadership it takes to be successful. I too looked at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). Small World !
I just can’t get by all of the “I was right” comments (and they are literally in just about every chapter)
Not to mention the “my private country club” or “the villa we stay at in Italy.” Having your executive team stand up and read the note for the gift you gave them for working a million hours a week for a year ??? When we have clients come in town and they want the “CEO” to join them for dinner, I certainly fall into line as my team is awesome and “make me” come along even when they know that titles don’t mean a lot in our organization. We often times take them to the Ocean Prime location as it is right by the Tampa International Airport and without a doubt, Jarred and Lauren truly do understand how to deliver a great experience. Jarred’s wife actually works the lunch shift at Ocean Prime so they don’t end up working together. True wisdom !
I am just more of a fan of Servant Leadership and there are quite a few Restauranteurs and Entrepreneurs that have built billion dollar brands whose books actually teach you something along the way of their individual experience. There is a very good possibility I am truly just “missing it” (would not be the first time!) on this book so please find out for yourself. I am not a judge but merely a spectator. If you are reading this review, thank you for your time!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Happy Customer
- 09-01-23
Not inspiring at at.
He maybe a great business man, but in my opinion; not a good story teller much less a writer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!