The Epic Saga of James Corden Versus Balthazar Explained
On Monday, Balthazar owner (and notoriously cantankerous Instagram user) Keith McNally tore into late night host James Corden for his alleged behavior at one of New York City’s most popular eateries. He shared a photo of Corden on Instagram, announcing the star had been 86’d for his reportedly nasty behavior to staff on multiple occasions, calling him a “a tiny Cretin of a man.”
But now everything is fine!
In a second post later that night, McNally once again shared a grainy screenshot of Corden, writing this time, “James Corden just called me and apologized profusely. Having f-cked up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances.”
McNally then joked that he’d agreed to let Corden back into Balthazar if he would allow the restauranteur to host the Late Late Show for nine months. Haha, jk, jk.
“No, of course not,” McNally continued. “But....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. xx.”
So what is the all that Corden was forgiven for? In McNally’s first post (which has not yet been deleted), the 71-year-old claimed that Corden was the “most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
He then cited two manager’s reports of Corden’s altercations with staff, one from June of this year in which Corden found a hair in his meal.
“Although this is diabolical, it happens Very occasionally in all restaurants,” McNally insisted.
Corden then supposedly told the server and manager, “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.”
The other run in happened earlier in October and should be read in full:
Mr. Corden's wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad. That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: "You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!" M.K. was very apologetic and brought G. over to the table. He returned the dish, and after that, everything was fine. He gave them promo Champagne glasses to smooth things out. G. said that Corden was pleasant to him but nasty to the server.
Did the servers all get personal apologies, too?
Before he and Corden made nice, McNally told told Page Six that he was “reluctant” to put Corden on blast, but “did so out of loyalty to restaurant servers everywhere.”
He added, “Their jobs are hard enough already. They shouldn’t have to take this kind of abuse from anyone, especially the rich and famous.”
While Corden has a public persona as the fun guy who sings in cars, rumors of unpleasant behind-the-scenes encounters have followed him for years. Who knows what’s true. We do know Corden at least has enough charm to de-escalate an argument with a millionaire who has nothing to lose and apparently no social media manager.
