It doesn’t really matter who you are—the rules are all the same to everyone on this planet. And if you abide by them, all’s fine and dandy. If you don’t—it’s off with your head. Or shame shame shame! Or just a ban will suffice. I guess.
This one restaurant owner recently had a “cretin” of a patron who not once, but twice managed to stand out from the crowd with his unacceptable treatment of the restaurant staff. This in turn led to a then very permanent ban, that was eventually lifted after a personal apology.
The role of the cretin was portrayed by TV host James Corden, and the role of the issuer of the ban was played by restaurant owner Keith McNally.
More Info: Ban Announcement | Apology Announcement
It doesn't really matter who you are—everyone ought to abide the laws of human decency, and being somebody famous is no exception
Image credits: Andy ThornleyFollow
Television host, actor, and comedian James Corden—yes, he’s the Brit from Carpool Karaoke—has recently been in the news after his conflict with some restaurant staff surfaced online.
You see, Keith McNally is the owner of New York City’s iconic all-day French restaurant and bakery “Balthazar”, a restaurant that meets and greets many celebrities. Recently, James Corden has been frequenting the restaurant, but it was not a very pleasant experience for anyone these past couple of times.
Keith took it to his Instagram to share two specific instances about the “hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man”, a.k.a. Corden, highlighting that in his 25 years of running Balthazar, none have been as abusive to his staff as he was.
James Corden recently came under fire for being very rude to NYC's iconic Balthazar Restaurant staff, made public on Instagram by its owner Keith McNally
Image credits: @keithmcnallynyc
Image credits: @balthazarny
Situation #1 happened back in June. After having eaten his main course, Corden found and showed a hair found in the dish to the manager. He was very apologetic, but Corden decided to choose nastiness:
“Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I write any nasty reviews in yelp or anything like that,” quoted Keith in his Instagram post.
Keith recalls two instances when Corden overstepped the line and was just plain rude to his servers and manager
Image credits: @keithmcnallynyc
Situation #2 happened later in October, when Corden was at the restaurant with his wife. The Mrs. ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad, but the yolk had a little bit of white mixed in, which the restaurant fixed immediately without any fuss. However, when the dish came back, the plate now had fries instead of the salad.
This inevitably led to Corden beginning to yell “like crazy” at the server, saying “You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!” The staff was again respectful and apologetic, returning with the dish, which was fine now, and providing a complementary glass of champagne to smooth things out. While Corden did seem to be pleasant with the manager, it was the server that he was nasty to. The server was in distress, but managed to end their shift despite the challenge.
Image credits: @keithmcnallynyc
It was then that the owner decided that enough was enough and issued a public ban on the comedian. Nobody deserves to be treated the way the server was. And sure, you can argue that perhaps Corden was having a rough day—happens to the best of us—but you can’t justify losing it, let alone bashing the server for a mistake that’s easily fixable.
After the second time, Keith decided to simply ban Corden for his unacceptable behavior
Image credits: @keithmcnallynyc
Image credits: @balthazarny
About an hour after the post was published on Instagram, Keith followed up with another post. Before anyone jumps to stereotyping and concluding that “all celebrities are horrible in person” and whatnot, Corden called up Keith and apologized for his behavior.
In his second post, Keith explained that he had his fair share of screw-ups in the past, and Corden deserves a second chance—even more so if he had the courage to apologize profusely. Keith did joke that he forgave him in exchange for an opportunity to host one of Corden’s shows for 9 months.
However, Corden reached out to the owner and apologized for his actions. Keith and his staff decided to forgive him and lift the ban
Image credits: @keithmcnallynyc
Needless to say, the ban was lifted. “Anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven,” concluded Keith.
Folks online had a lot to say on the matter. Mostly it was praising Keith for standing up for his staff and letting famous people understand that they are people who still ought to abide by the laws of human decency. Others took the opportunity to take a jab at Corden, doubting Keith's claim that he is a "hugely gifted comedian", but I digress.
Here's what folks had to say about it
We’ve reached out to Keith McNally for a comment on the whole situation. He is yet to respond. But that is pretty much it—a very human conflict that led to appropriate consequences and a very civilized apology. Sure, it all could have just not happened, and the yolk thing does sound a bit insignificant to overreact about, but humans do be like that sometimes. The important thing is it’s all reconciled.
So, what are your thoughts on this? Would you accept Corden’s apology? Do you think he should have approached it differently and not snapped in the first place? Share your thoughts (and smack those upvotes, like all of them) in the comment section below!