Keith McNally has spent decades perfecting the art of creating restaurants and the ultimate experience.
Long before Instagram gave everyone a global platform, McNally was already operating in a city where celebrity came with an appetite. But McNally has never been particularly interested in treating celebrity like a VIP password.
That attitude is quintessential McNally. He built an empire around restaurants such as Minetta Tavern, Balthazar and Pastis, where movie stars, musicians, fashion royalty and assorted Manhattan legends can sit within arm’s reach of ordinary New Yorkers pretending not to notice.
In McNally’s wonderful memoir: ‘I Regret Almost Everything,’ he divulges into every corner of his life. He also throws in some classic zingers and embarrassing moments for celebs.
One memorable pastime story from the memoir is when he was opening Nell’s in 1986.
Nell’s became the hotspot of a generation as a nightclub in Greenwich Village that was formally an electronics store. The hotspot later closed in 2004.
McNally sparred no one, not even Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan, a $5 cover fee to enter into Nell’s. McNally writes, ‘This rule applied to everyone.’ Though, he claims Mr. Jagger and Mr. Dylan, as well as others, took it in ‘good humor’
McNally has always maintained that his restaurants are for everyone, provided everyone understands the golden rule of dining: the table may be yours, but the restaurant is still his.
And Madonna? She apparently discovered that even being the Queen of Pop doesn’t mean you get a pass.
Madonna did not seem to find the humor in the $5 cover charge as other celebs. McNally writes that ‘Madonna became so incensed to be asked to pay that she demanded I let her in for free.” After being denied a free entry, he claims that Madonna called him a ‘fucking bastard’ and left.
Keith McNally’s memoir will be forever remembered as one of the best—sharp, candid, and every bit as unforgettable as the man himself.
