NEW YORK – A popular New York City restaurant briefly excluded comedian James Corden from its Manhattan establishment after “the man’s treatment of my staff.”
Keith McNally, owner of SoHo’s famed Balthazar restaurant, wrote in an Instagram post Monday that the host of “The late showMcNally called Corden the “most abusive customer of my Bathazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago” and said he had similar behavior at another restaurant I owned a few years ago.
McNally went on to describe two alleged incidents involving the TV host on Balthazar, the first occurring in June when he allegedly found a hair in his food. After the manager apologized, according to McNally, Corden asked for “another round of drinks right away and there. And he’s also covered the cost of all our drinks so far.”
Corden also threatened to leave a negative review on Yelp, according to the owner.
The most recent case occurred on October 9, McNally said, when Corden was at a restaurant with his wife. After ordering an egg yolk omelette with cheese and salad, the host complained to the staff that there was egg white “mixed with yolk”. When the kitchen remade the dish, he accidentally sent it with homemade fries instead of the salad, according to McNally, which made Corden react, he added.
“That’s when James Corden started screaming like crazy at the server, ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go to the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!'” McNally said of the TV star whim.
The manager offered free champagne glasses to help calm Corden, according to McNally, saying it seemed to work, but that Corden was still “hostile” to the waiter at the time.
Hours after declaring that Corden was “86” from the restaurant, McNally posted again on Instagram saying the comedian called him and “apologized profusely” for the incidents. And for that, McNally said he would lift the ban.
“Anyone who is magnanimous enough to apologize to a bum like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be kicked out anywhere. Especially Balthazar, ”McNally wrote in the next post.
Our sister chain NBC New York contacted Corden’s team, but they didn’t respond immediately. Neither McNally nor the restaurant responded immediately to requests NBC News for more details.
