A New York City restaurant mogul has spilled the beans on which A-list celebrity was ‘incredibly rude’ to his servers.
Keith McNally claimed that while he was the general manager at the iconic One Fifth restaurant in the 1970s, singer Patti Smith treated the waitstaff awfully.
The admission is taken from an excerpt of his upcoming memoir which was featured in Grub Street, New York Magazine’s food and restaurant blog.
In the book, he explains that Smith would frequent the Italian trattoria – that permanently closed in February of this year – with her then-boyfriend, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Sam Wagstaff, who lived in an apartment above the restaurant, would sometimes join them. Wagstaff, a former art curator, was once Mapplethorpe’s lover and also was his benefactor.
Wagstaff appeared to be a moderating influence because when he didn’t dine with them, ‘Smith and Mapplethorpe could be very difficult to wait on,’ McNally wrote.
‘Smith, unfortunately, was incredibly rude to the servers. 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,’ he added.
Mapplethorpe, on the other hand, ‘never tried to belittle’ the servers like Smith did, McNally said.
Smith’s alleged mistreatment of waiters and waitresses disappointed many of her fans, who made their heartbreak known on social media.
Patti Smith (pictured left in 1976, right in 2024) allegedly made a waitress cry when she forgot to bring bread to her table at One Fifth, a restaurant Keith McNally worked at in the 1970s
According to McNally, Smith was often dining with her ex-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe, an acclaimed photographer at the time
Smith’s alleged mistreatment of waiters and waitresses broke the hearts of many fans on social media. Some commented on New York Magazine’s Instagram post promoting the article
‘He’s not lying about Patti Smith. I witnessed her rudeness years ago at working a banquet,’ one person commented on New York Magazine’s Instagram post promoting the article.
Another said: ‘The Patti Smith is rude to servers comment just broke my heart!’
A third said they wished they ‘didn’t know that about Patti.’
Someone who claimed to know people who spent time with the punk rocker and poet said this surprised them.
‘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,’ the commenter wrote.
McNally’s piece in New York Magazine was excerpted from his upcoming book, ‘I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir.’ It’s due to come out on May 6.
Before he became internationally recognized as the man who owns nearly a dozen high-end eateries in the Big Apple, McNally got his start in 1975 as an oyster shucker at the One Fifth restaurant.
He quickly rose the ranks and became the general manager five months after he started, despite being just 24-year-old immigrant from England who was technically working illegally.
Keith McNally, now 73, was born in England but emigrated to the United States in October 1975 at age 24
In the following years, McNally opened up a number of other famous restaurants in the city, including Café Luxembourg, Nell’s, Lucky Strike, Pravda, and Balthazar (pictured)
McNally also bought the Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village, which has attracted famous people of old including Ernest Hemingway and more recent celebrities such as Taylor Swift
McNally was born in England but emigrated to the United States in 1975 ‘with a vague plan to make films,’ he wrote.
He said he was running out of money by his second week in New York, which was when he ‘ditched the film idea and found a job as a busboy at Serendipity, the ice-cream parlor on East 60th Street.’
That began his journey into the food and hospitality business, culminating in him opening his very first restaurant in 1980, The Odeon. He got it off the ground with Lynn Wagenknecht, who would become his first wife, and his brother Brian as business partners.
His inspiration to open the modern French Bistro, which remains a New York icon to this day, came from his friendship with Anna Wintour, the longtime editor-in-chief of Vogue.
He met her before she got that vaunted title in 1988 by ruining a plate of eggs benedict for her at One Fifth.
In 1978, she invited him and Lynn Wagenknecht, who would become his first wife, to France for a week. Wintour was living in Paris for the time being with her boyfriend.
‘Anna’s plan was to seduce me into remaining in France to work alongside her boyfriend. By the end of a long week of being treated to such terrific bistros and brasseries, I was thoroughly seduced: not by the idea of moving to Paris, however, but by the thought of returning to New York and, with Lynn and Brian building our own version of a Parisian brasserie.’
In the following years, McNally opened or gained ownership over a number of other famous restaurants in the city, including Café Luxembourg, Nell’s, Lucky Strike, Pravda, Balthazar, Pastis, Schiller’s, Morandi, Minetta Tavern, Cherche Midi, and Augustine.