James Corden Mistreated Restaurant's Servers, Owner Claims

By Michael Hein

A prominent restaurant owner in New York City has opened up publicly about his experiences serving late-night host James Corden. Keith McNally took to Instagram with two specific anecdotes about Corden mistreating servers and behaving cruelly in restaurants. McNally wrote that Corden was banned from his restaurants altogether, and later joked that he would lift that ban if Corden would let him host The Late Late Show on CBS.

"James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man," McNally began his Instagram post on Monday. He noted that his restaurant Balthazar has been open for a quarter-century, and said that Corden is "the most abusive customer" he has met in all that time. He then shared synopses of two different reports from restaurant managers regarding Corden. The first began in June, when the manager explained that Corden had found a hair in his food.

"After eating his main course, Corden showed the hair to Balthazar manager G, who was very apologetic. Corden was extremely nasty to G, and said: 'Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all our drinks so far. This way I [don't] write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that,'" the report read.

The second incident was more recent. According to the manager, Corden and his wife visited Balthazar for brunch earlier this month, but his wife was not satisfied with her omelet. Corden sent it back and asked the water to have it remade, but the second time it came back with the wrong side dish. They wrote: "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 omelet myself!' [The server] was very apologetic and brought [the manager] over to the table. He returned the dish, and after that, everything was fine... [The manager] said that Corden was pleasant to him but nasty to the sever."

As this post made the rounds on social media, fans shared other rumored accounts of Corden's behavior. One particular Reddit comment got a lot of traffic, but of course, none of these stories can be verified. A few hours after his first post, McNally returned to Instagram claiming that Corden had apologized to him. He let his followers know how Corden could make things right.

"James Corden just called me and apologized profusely," he wrote. "Having f-ed up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I'll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not. 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."

According to a report by The Daily Mail, McNally has a bit of a reputation for his "mercurial" nature within the NYC restaurant industry. However, the outlet also notes Corden's growing reputation for his temper off-camera. So far, Corden has not responded publicly to McNally's accusations.

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