NYC restaurant owner Keith McNally has revealed the A-list celebrity who was once “incredibly rude” to one of his servers, making them cry.
McNally remembers working at One Fifth in the 1970s
Back in the ‘70s, when Keith McNally was a general manager at the old-school One Fifth spot, he had no idea he’d end up owning places like Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern. A sneak peek was released from his memoir, recalling an incident that he witnessed happen between a waiter and an A-list singer.
In his memoir, he calls out Patti Smith
In a sneak peek from his new memoir, “I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir”, McNally straight up mentions names like Patti Smith. The legendary punk-poet used to be a regular at the Italian place, Baltazar.
Smith regularly dined with Mapplethorpe and sometimes Wagstaff
According to McNally, Patti often dined in with her boyfriend at the time, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Sometimes, Sam Wagstaff—Mapplethorpe’s ex— would be there too since she happened to live upstairs from the restaurant.
He says Smith and Mapplethorpe were difficult customers
McNally didn’t sugarcoat it even.
“Smith and Mapplethorpe could be very difficult to wait on,” he said.
Smith once brought a waitress to tears over BREAD
There was this one time where Patti apparently snapped at a waitress just because she forgot the bread.
“Smith, unfortunately, was incredibly rude to the servers,” he wrote. “It’s impossible for me to listen to a Patti Smith song today without remembering her reducing a waitress to tears because she forgot to put bread on the table.”
On the other hand, her boyfriend never belittled the waitstaff
He did point out, though, that Mapplethorpe was exactly the opposite. Said the guy “never tried to belittle” anyone working there. Unlike Patti, apparently.
People online shared their own Patti Smith stories
Once the excerpt dropped, people online started chiming in with their own Patti stories. And not all of them were so good.
“He’s not lying about Patti Smith,” someone said under New York Magazine’s Instagram post. “I witnessed her rudeness years ago at working a banquet.”
But some comments defended Patti Smith
“I know people who have spent time with her in the past few years and she was sweet as could be … I guess she’s mellowed … or that waiter was very sensitive,” one person said.
Another jumped in with, “Your comment about Patti is disturbing. She was always down to earth and lovely when we worked together or met via Sony Music. Did you ever discus [sic] it with her? Lord knows I’ve had my bad moments.”
Suspiciously enough, her team has not responded to the claims
So far, no word back from Patti’s team.
McNally has called out other celebrities before
Also worth noting that this isn’t the first time McNally’s put a celebrity on blast. Back in 2022, he publicly banned James Corden from Balthazar after he acted like a jerk to the staff.
Called him “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” and even went as far as calling him “a tiny cretin of a man.” But to be fair, Corden did end up calling and apologizing, so McNally unbanned him.
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The memoir is set to release in May
McNally’s book I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir is coming out May 6.
Should be a juicy read.
