Balthazar's Owner Is In A Shame Spiral Over The James Corden Incident
People who work as restaurant servers tend to absorb a lot of mistreatment. Business Insider says that half of restaurant workers report being abused by customers or managers and they are often seeking ways to escape the industry.
Entitlement and abuse are just some of the customer habits that servers hate. Others include letting children run wild, people who snap their fingers at a server as if they're a trained beast, and throwing things. These are just a few examples of the things that servers want people to stop doing. Actions like this are rare to nonexistent in many other workplaces. Imagine an accountant needing to complain that someone came into their place of business and ordered them around. That person would be blacklisted and forced to count their own beans.
As these incidents of abuse are becoming more commonly reported, an increasing number of businesses are taking action. TODAY reports a Cape Cod restaurant closed as an act of kindness after staff handled a particularly bad customer interaction, while the owner of Balthazar blacklisted "Carpool Karaoke" host James Corden (via Washington Post). Now, the latter is upset about his actions.
Keith McNally feels sorry for James Corden, plans to get drunk, unbans Corden
Keith McNally seemed to have a strange few days. For those unfamiliar with the name, McNally is the owner of several restaurants, including Minetta Tavern and Pastis (via Balthazar). Perhaps his best-known property is the French eatery Balthazar which has a Soho, New York location as well as one in London. It's recognized for having some of Geoffrey Zakarian's favorite desserts. It was at the Balthazar in New York that drama began between McNally and television personality James Corden.
According to an Instagram post from McNally, Corden is "the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago." The post describes two incidents of unkind behavior, which led Corden to be banned from the restaurant.
However, shortly after McNally "86'd" Corden, he put up another Instagram post in which he said, "Feeling strange about the James Corden thing. ... I feel really sorry for him right now. ... I'm going to get drunk." Apparently, the booze helped ease McNally's temperament because he posted again that he unbanned Corden from the restaurant after a heartfelt apology from the comedian. Hopefully Corden, along with other irate and abusive customers, can learn to keep his cool and help make restaurants places people want to eat and work.