Celebrities Who Have Been Kicked Out Of Restaurants
People get kicked out of restaurants for behaving badly all the time, but it's far more interesting when it's a celebrity getting the boot. When you first think about what might get a public figure kicked out of a restaurant, you probably imagine it's because they're being rowdy or acting entitled. Yes, there have been celebrities escorted from restaurant premises because they were drunk, unhinged, or just rude jerks. However, there are also other reasons celebrities haven't been welcomed in eating establishments.
Tommy Lee, Rita Ora, and Kenya Moore each committed a faux pas based on unwritten social and fashion rules. Meanwhile, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave for ethical reasons. We'll let you make up your mind about whether some of the diners should have been asked to leave or were justified in their actions — like when Ruby Rose decided to start throwing French fries at a rude bartender. Sometimes, the line between who is in the right and who is in the wrong isn't as clear as you might want to think.
James Corden
Comedian, actor, singer, and talk show host James Corden is among a long list of celebrities who have been kicked out of restaurants. Unlike most, he was banned and then unbanned over two incidents at the New York City restaurant Balthazar.
During the first incident, Corden found a hair in his food. The restaurant owner, Keith McNally said on Instagram that Corden demanded his servers immediately get him another round of drinks and make all the previous ones free in return for not giving the restaurant a bad review.
The second incident happened on October 9, 2022, when Corden's wife ordered an egg yolk omelet with a salad. The kitchen remade the omelet since there was egg white in the yolk. Then, the kitchen sent home fries instead of a salad with the remade dish. According to McNally's Instagram, Corden started yelling, "You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go to the kitchen and cook the omelet myself!" After this outburst, McNally banned Corden from Balthazar.
However, McNally went into a shame spiral over the incident, saying, on Instagram that he was "feeling strange about the James Corden thing" and that he was "going to get drunk." Not long after, McNally posted on Instagram saying, "Corden just called me and apologized profusely ... I strongly believe in second chances ... anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me ... doesn't deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar."
Ari Emanuel
New York City fine dining fixture Eleven Madison Park decided to go vegan in 2021 because "There's no question that plant-based food is better for the planet, and it doesn't mean sacrificing deliciousness." However, nobody told the vegan CEO of Endeavor, Ari Emanuel, that dinner at the restaurant typically lasts two and a half to three hours. In 2021, he threw a fit when his $335 12-course meal was taking too long. Page Six's inside source said that "Emanuel's behavior 'escalated' throughout the meal, and he repeatedly swore at multiple staff members."
The owner and chef of Eleven Madison Park told Page Six that the restaurant has "a zero-tolerance policy for mistreatment of our staff." After a staff member told Emanuel that they wouldn't accept his rude behavior toward the staff, Emanuel left. According to Tatler Asia, several people have complained about the length of the meal, despite the fact it's supposed to be an experience.
Nicolas Cage
In September of 2021, a drunk, barefoot, unshaven man walked into Lawry's Prime Rib in Las Vegas wearing a black t-shirt and leopard-print pants. Eyewitnesses told The Sun that they initially assumed the man was homeless. He ordered and drank shot after shot of tequila and expensive 1980 Macallan whiskey before stumbling around drunk, shouting, trying to get into fights with customers, and arguing with the staff. Witnesses of the rowdy customer were shocked to realize that the out-of-control barefoot drinker was none other than actor Nicolas Cage. The staff eventually asked him to leave, and a regular ended up taking him home since he was in such bad shape. A witness said, "He was so drunk he could barely get his flip-flops on before being escorted out."
The Sun speculates that the incident may have had some connection to the rough year Cage had experienced so far, entering into his fifth marriage and having his mother die. Mercury News was perplexed, saying Cage had never shown signs of substance abuse or mental breakdown before. However, he once told The Guardian, "If I don't have somewhere to go in the morning and a job to do, I can be very self-destructive. Then I'm just going to sit and order two bottles of red wine and dissolve." He clearly needed something to do that day.
Kenya Moore
When you're a new parent, nobody gives you a handbook telling you what to do. Actress and model Kenya Moore learned the hard way that people don't always want to meet all of a baby's needs in the dining area of a restaurant. In February 2019, Moore was traveling with her baby, Brooklyn, when she stopped at a restaurant to eat. Since Brooklyn was in need of a diaper change, she went ahead and changed the baby's diaper in the dining room rather than going to the restroom to do it. As a result, the restaurant kicked her out.
Moore said on Instagram, "OMG, I was so embarrassed. I had no idea about these rules! As a new mama, I'm learning new things every day." Some commenters on her post about the incident were appalled that she didn't know this unspoken and unwritten social rule, while others were more understanding. @bossdivaanita said, "If they didn't have a space to do it, they should have offered a suggestion instead of kicking you out ... I've seen people do what you did before. When my babies were small and there was no place to change them, I'd lay them back into their stroller and change them in the stroller. As moms we've gotta do what we've gotta go to take care of our babies when places don't provide the resources."
Tommy Lee
Historical hat etiquette dictates that men should remove their hats in most public places, while women can wear dress hats indoors. According to Southern Living, hat etiquette is a lot less rigid than it used to be, but in the South, the old rules are still enforced sometimes. And Tommy Lee was deep in the heart of a Southern city when he was kicked out of a restaurant over a hat.
According to People, the Motley Crue drummer and his media star wife were both wearing hats when they sat down at Emeril's top-rated Delmonico restaurant in New Orleans. The waitress told Lee that he needed to take his baseball cap off but that his wife was welcome to keep hers on. Lee relented and took his hat off, putting it in his lap while mumbling an exasperated "Oh, what the f***." Upon hearing the response, the server told Lee he'd have to leave for using profanity.
In his frustration, Lee took to Twitter to explain the situation to Emeril and ask "Wtf dude????" Emeril responded to Lee on Twitter by saying that the "Delmonico NOLA dress code is getting as much attention as Popeye's spicy chicken sandwich." While not quite an apology, it was an acknowledgment of the ridiculousness of the whole incident.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Unlike most celebrities who have been kicked out of restaurants, Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasn't kicked out for bad behavior. Instead, she was kicked out of The Red Hen for ethical reasons related to her political actions and position as then-President Trump's press secretary.
In June of 2018, the staff of a small farm-to-table restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, panicked when they saw Sanders walk in with her staff. According to The Washington Post, several of the employees at the Red Hen are gay. Co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson said that they knew Sanders had supported Trump's policy to restrict transgender people's ability to openly serve in the military. Sanders had also publicly defended Trump's controversial immigration policies. When Wilkinson asked her employees if they wanted Sanders to leave, they said that they did. So Wilkinson took Sanders outside for a chat. Before asking her to leave, Wilkinson told Sanders, "The restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation."
Sanders honored the request and left without making a fuss. While Sanders' fellow diners were given the option to stay, Kayleigh McEnany tweeted that she left politely as well. According to HuffPost, the restaurant's social media pages were flooded with comments, along with one- and five-star reviews from both sides of the political spectrum as a result of the request for Sanders to leave.
Jamie Foxx
Accounts vary as to what happened when actor, comedian, and singer Jamie Foxx visited the Catch restaurant in West Hollywood with some friends in January of 2017. Supposedly, Foxx and his friends were being a little too loud on the patio when chaos broke loose from a nearby table. TMZ has video footage of the mayhem, but it's not that great. Several celebrities witnessed the event up close and personal, including Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Bruckheimer, Micahel Bay, and Nicole Murphy.
A witness told TMZ that the tumult began after a man at a neighboring table yelled, "You don't want to mess with me. I'm from New York." After a comedian at Foxx's table responded with, "F*** you. I'm from Oakland," the guy from New York rushed Foxx. Some witnesses said the man pushed Foxx down onto a table, and Foxx responded by putting the man in a chokehold. However, one report from Page Six says that Foxx wasn't actually involved in the fight.
Some reports say that the restaurant only kicked the belligerent guy from New York and his friends out of the restaurant. However, other reports, like one from the East Bay Times, say that everyone involved in the incident was asked to leave. Whatever happened, it turned what was meant to be a pleasant dining experience into one that wasn't.
Rita Ora
When celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was on The Jonathan Ross Show with British singer, songwriter, and actress Rita Ora in 2017, he asked her if she'd ever eaten at one of his restaurants. "Well, actually, funny little story," she answered. "I was wanting to ... like everybody else that wants to go eat in a Ramsay restaurant. And then, I just didn't get in." She said she was able to go inside and say, "Ooh I'd love a little ... meal," but they told her "No, this isn't happening for you" (via YouTube). It turns out that Ora was wearing a tracksuit and tennis shoes at the time, which supposedly didn't meet the restaurant's dress code.
Ramsay asked which restaurant she was attempting to dine in when it happened. Ora said she didn't think he knew about it, or someone probably would have been fired, knowing Ramsay. "If I say it, are they going to get in trouble?" He assured her they wouldn't, but she decided not to divulge which restaurant it was. Ramsay is known for his temper, so she likely saved someone's job by keeping the location information to herself.
Ruby Rose
When actress Ruby Rose was in New Orleans in 2016, she stopped by the Rebellion Bar and Urban Kitchen with a few friends. According to Page Six, the wait staff seated them at the bar, telling them that the kitchen was backed up. According to the restaurant's owner, Seung Hong, the group's appetizers arrived within 40 minutes and the main course came out 10 minutes later. Hong told Page Six that the group was offered appetizers and a round of drinks for free. Rose said on Facebook that she explained that she was sober and thanked him. "He then made some really rude and vulgar comments ... So I threw a singular fry at him. Then he ... continued making awful comments, so I continued with the fries. ... Maybe next time I won't throw fries, then again, maybe next time that bartender won't tell someone who is sober to 'go call your f***ing sponsor!'"
Server Briana Trosclair responded to Rose's FaceBook post, saying that the bartender "was not rude or making jabs at her sobriety. She flipped out on him because she can't control her temper." However, another commenter, Caroline Adelle, who previously worked at the restaurant for a couple of weeks said, "I've worked for terrible management and owners before, but never before until this place have I worked for someone so bad that they literally pissed off every guest that had something wrong with their meal." Maybe a little fry-throwing was long overdue.
Aretha Franklin
Most of us have ordered a takeout meal only to change our minds and decide to dine in instead. We never really think anything of it since it doesn't usually inconvenience anyone but ourselves. So, when the singer Aretha Franklin sat down at a Johnny Rockets in 2014 after ordering her burger and Cherry Coke to go, she didn't think anything of it. Soon, a waitress swooped over to where the Queen of Soul was sitting to tell Franklin that she couldn't sit there. Franklin was taken aback and said, "Excuse me, what do you mean I can't sit here?" The waitress went on to say that Franklin couldn't eat inside the restaurant because "we've already rang you up as a takeout customer." The waitress banished Franklin to the food court outside the restaurant despite her star status. After all, rules are rules, right?
Franklin didn't want the employee to be fired for what she did, but she wanted the girl to be informed of the error of her ways. According to BET, a Johnny Rockets spokesman apologized to Franklin, saying that the waitress was a "new and very young employee" who didn't understand the takeout policy. Even though the company clarified the takeout policy with the waitress, Franklin said she had no intention of ever going back to that particular Ontario, Canada, Johnny Rockets again.
Stewart Rahr
Pharmaceutical billionaire Stewart Rahr is no stranger to Nobu. Since it is one of the absolute best Japanese restaurants in the U.S., he had a favorite table there. We're using the past tense since Rahr's favorite Nobu table will never be available to him again after allegedly threatening to kill the manager in November of 2012. According to the New York Post, he tried bribing people dining at his favorite table to give it up to him by offering to pay their bill. According to manager Sharon Hofstetter, nobody has their own table at Nobu except Robert DeNiro and Chef Nobu himself.
Rahr called Hofstetter to complain, and since she hadn't returned his call yet, he came back the next day to complain to her. She said, "He called me the C-word and said he would kill me." Then, Rahr sent an all-caps, misspelled email to the manager at Nobu, Drew Nieporent, saying that Hofstetter had acted toward him disrespectfully. To further make his point, he copied the email to celebrities he thought would care, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, and Donald Trump.
Of course, he denied having threatened Hofstetter's life, but the damage was done. According to the Post, the staff had never really liked Rahr since he tended to cause problems and be overly demanding. One waiter said, "He spends a lot of money, and it's kind of like he thinks he owns this place." No one seemed sad to see him banned.
Britney Spears
2007 was a tough year for Britney Spears. It started with a shaved head and rehab in February and a divorce in July. The last part of the year featured a hit and run in August, a flop performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September, losing custody of her children in October, and running over an officer's feet in November. All of this resulted in her father putting her into her infamous conservatorship in 2008 (via Life and Style Mag). In mid-September of 2007, after Spears' failed awards show performance and before she lost custody of her kids, she was kicked out of the restaurant at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles.
Spears was in distress when she visited the hotel's restaurant. According to LA Mag, Victoria Beckham, who happened to be dining at the same time as Spears, told the staff that Spears had seemed strange even before she began smearing gourmet food all over her face. Today says that fellow diners were disgusted by the spectacle. Members of the restaurant staff escorted Spears out of the restaurant and asked her to never return. However, it seems all was forgiven and forgotten two years later because LA Mag says she was allowed to come back to Chateau Marmont to celebrate her 28th birthday. Now that Spears is free from her 13-year conservatorship, she's out eating at restaurants and enjoying herself again.