Keith McNally Has Been a Controversy Magnet Since Way Before His Beef With James Corden

Many of McNally’s restaurants have become iconic celeb-magnets
He’s faced physical and personal troubles in recent years
McNally is not afraid to speak his mind—and stir up scandal
His Instagram is as highly trafficked and drama-filled as his restaurants

Keith McNally’s name has been in the press a lot recently. The restaurateur called out James Corden. He walked back his call-out of James Corden. He called out James Corden once more. For the thousands of new Instagram followers McNally gained during the back and forth, this may have been the first time his name crossed their paths or their phone screens. But the London-born owner of New York restaurants, including Balthazar and Minetta Tavern, has been making waves—and causing controversy—for decades.

Since he began opening restaurants in the ’80s, as he will undoubtedly cover in his upcoming memoir, McNally has been a scene-maker. Carrie Bradshaw repeatedly dines at McNally’s French restaurant Pastis over several episodes of Sex and the City. “10,000 restaurants in New York and everyone’s at Pastis,” declares one character as they squeeze into a tight booth. McNally owns Balthazar, as well as an offshoot of the restaurant in London, along with Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi. All these years after those episodes aired, McNally’s restaurants remain as buzzy as ever.

But McNally himself is increasingly becoming an object of fascination, in part due to his well-followed Instagram feed where he frequently courts controversy. For those just becoming acquainted with the restaurateur, here’s what to know.

Many of McNally’s restaurants have become iconic celeb-magnets

McNally’s constellation of restaurants around Manhattan represent a specific slice of New York City dining culture—one of casual glamor, effortless cool, and unpretentious luxury. His restaurant career began with The Odeon, which he opened in the early ’80s. It became a hangout for such characters as Andy Warhol, Robert De Niro, and Madonna. A 2004 profile in the New York Times dubbed him “The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown.” Anna Wintour, the fashion icon (and global chief content officer at Condé Nast, Bon Appétit’s parent company) is perhaps one of the most constant McNally devotees, but according to nightly reports from managers at his restaurants that he posts on social media, other guests have included the likes of Eddie Redmayne, Natalie Portman, and Olivier Sarkozy, among others.

The word iconic gets thrown around a lot these days, but within the New York restaurant world, McNally certainly approaches icon-status. Whatever you think about him, you have to admit: Keith McNally knows how to cultivate a vibe.

He’s faced physical and personal troubles in recent years

In a 2021 interview with The Daily Beast, McNally was frank about the issues he was working through. “After divorce, a stroke, and COVID destroying 75 percent of the finances of my restaurants, it’s crucial I make money,” he said.

That stroke, in 2017, left him partially paralyzed, and the next year, his second wife Alina McNally filed for divorce. In 2020, COVID shut down his entire restaurant empire, which, along with divorce expenses, “cost me 10 million dollars,” he said in a 2021 interview with Grub Street. “It left me not giving a fuck what anyone thinks of me,” he said in the same interview, which may be the genesis of some of his more recent controversies.

McNally is not afraid to speak his mind—and stir up scandal

The restaurateur has a rich history of saying whatever the hell he wants—often leaving scandal and outrage in his wake. After a one-star review from New York Magazine’s Adam Platt in 2010, McNally wrote a letter to Platt, calling the critic “bald” and “fat” and said he was “incapable of reviewing lively downtown restaurants impartially.” When a similarly negative review of Morandi, led by chef Jody Williams, appeared in the New York Times, McNally accused former restaurant critic Frank Bruni of sexism. According to McNally, the critic had never given a female chef more than a single star at the time. While Bruni never formally responded to the letter, he did call McNally a “horrible man” later that year. Platt was a bit more loquacious in his response. “I respect Mr. McNally, of course, and have praised the food and atmosphere at many of his ‘busy, exuberant’ restaurants in the past,” he wrote. “As always, in these cases, he is entitled to his opinion and I, as a bald, middle aged and, alas (slightly) overweight professional restaurant critic, am entitled to mine.”

Some of McNally’s most shocking Instagram tirades have very little to do with restaurants. In July of this year, he revealed that he was (and still is!) a vehement supporter of Woody Allen.

View the Instagram photo.

He also made waves when he posted on Instagram, seemingly in support of noted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. “Let’s not rush to judgment,” he wrote in an Instagram caption below an image of Maxwell. “Ghislaine Maxwell is currently innocent. She must be given a fair trial. Due Process is the core of democracy,” the rest of the caption reads. Commenters were understandably angry. “You’re insane,” reads one. “Damn dude CANCELED,” reads another. In typical McNally fashion, there wasn’t quite an apology so much as another post explaining the original. On May 8th, he posted another picture of Maxwell with a caption in which he wrote “I was NOT defending Maxwell. I was defending her RIGHT to a fair trial. I HAPPEN TO THINK SHE WAS GUILTY, but i don’t KNOW it 100%.”

Then there was the time he called Graydon Carter, longtime Vanity Fair editor and co-founder of AirMail, a “fancy fucker” for ghosting on a reservation at his restaurant, Morandi (mean, but honest). Or his recent 273 word rant against Jean Georges Vongerichten’s latest restaurant complex, The Tin Building (honest, but also kind of mean). Or the multiple pictures he’s posted of himself coyly lifting his hospital gown towards the camera in his hospital room post-vasectomy (simply bizarre).

Despite some of his reprehensible and head-scratching takes, McNally’s fans (and probably a number of his haters) continue to follow along closely. His restaurants remain popular and his posts still garner thousands of likes.

His Instagram is as highly trafficked and drama-filled as his restaurants

McNally’s lack of a filter is a large part of why scandal seems to follow him everywhere. But that’s not to say his online feed is only filled with questionable takes. He posts frequently—often multiple times a day—with candid snapshots of what he’s thinking. There’s introspection and self-aware musing on the restaurant industry, as well as pictures of the man himself posing with longtime employees, and delightfully silly anecdotes of his celebrity run-ins.

He describes a “torrid love affair” with Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley. He announces a $500 bonus and a paid vacation to Chechnya for Balthazar’s employee of the month. He often emphasizes his deep belief in giving people a second chance. He reflects on complicated relationships with his parents. It is useless trying to predict what he will post next.

On a platform like Instagram, where we’ve all agreed to post intensely curated snapshots of our lives, it’s rare to see posts like McNally’s, where he is strikingly unfiltered about his day-to-day life and opinions. It’s a sharp departure from the insincere, and often corny social media presences that many influential people with big followings curate.

Whether followers come to get an insider’s view on the restaurant industry, or to participate in one of many frequent arguments in the comments of McNally’s posts, the authentic and chaotic vibe of his Instagram is what makes it irresistible for so many.