Here’s a bit of New York trivia: Keith McNally’s flagship restaurant, Balthazar, shares its name with one of the Three Wise Men.
And with each passing day, the irony of McNally owning a restaurant named after a guy with insightful things to say about the Middle East grows ever more stark.
The famed restaurateur whined on Thursday that he’s lost “a big chunk” of business after he posted an incendiary remark about the Hamas attacks on Israel — then he immediately made a brand new set of even more incendiary remarks that somehow made the whole thing worse.
On Monday McNally stunned New Yorkers and hospitality biz insiders by posting about the terrorist atrocities that have left more than 1200 people dead in Israel, with the caption: “The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.”
The next day, the Brit — who has also launched Pastis, Morandi, Odeon, and others since 1980 — apologized and deleted the post, which could easily have drawn a close to the regrettable episode.
But no! On Thursday, he inexplicably returned to the fray, painting himself as a victim and stunningly comparing people defending Jewish victims of terrorism to — of all possible things — Nazis and terrorists!
This time he posted a screenshot of a call to boycott Pastis, argued that he had not encouraged people to praise or support terrorists but merely to listen to them, and said: “For saying Listen, I’ve received 4000 hate messages. For saying Listen, I’ve been called a Hamas lover, a Jew hater and a hater of mankind. For saying Listen, lies have been spread about me on Social Media causing my restaurants to lose a big chunk of their business. For saying Listen I received a message from somebody on Tuesday threatening to Cut my Head Off.” [sic].
(It’s unclear how he is able to differentiate the business he thinks he’s lost because of alleged lies about him versus the business he’s lost simply because would-be customers think he said something vile on Monday and so they decided not to go to his restaurants).
He added: “Whatever happened to Free Speech in America?” “This is not Germany in 1938,” he said, referring to the period during which Adolf Hitler consolidated his power and silenced opposition. “Persecuting someone unjustly is a form of terrorism. Have you no sense of decency, America?”
Famed fashion-publicist-turned-brand-guru Aliza Licht responded, “Keith, ironic that you should ask if it’s 1938 because to the 1200 Jews that were senselessly murdered this week, I would say yes. But instead of acknowledging the horror that has happened in Israel from women being raped, babies being beheaded, and innocent civilians being killed and kidnapped, you have chosen to make this about you, your social media presence, and your restaurants’ revenue.” She added, “Please wait a moment while I take out my tiny violin for you. YOU should listen for a moment and think about that.”
McNally has become something of a social media phenomenon in the last year or so, in part for stirring controversy, calling out rude celeb guests and posting un-PC points of view, including his fervent support for Woody Allen.
It’s also unclear how much business he has lost.
On Wednesday, Page Six received a video of empty outdoor seating at Balthazar in Soho taken during the normally busy breakfast rush at 10.15am. Co-owner of hip private club Zero Bond, Will Makris, posted the same video, which was doing the rounds, saying “Hmmmmm where are all your customers.” Cobi Levy, Markris’ partner in Prince Street Hospitality, which owns Lola Taverna and Little Prince, also posted the video saying, “Apparently Anti Semitism doesn’t pay. Especially in NYC.”
As Page Six reported earlier this week top names from Surf Lodge and Sixty Hotels have threatened never to set foot in McNally-owned property again.
But the restaurant seemed busy in the afternoon and was fully booked on Resy for dinner on Wednesday night. Similarly, Odeon appeared to be booked solid for Thursday evening.
Stephen Starr, McNally’s partner at French hotspot Pastis in NYC and Miami wrote on Instagram: “There is no grey area. The topic is black and white. The acts against Israelis and the Jewish people are beyond my definition of pure evil. My heart and the hearts of all decent people are breaking as we hear more of this savagery. There are no words to describe this non-human behavior and I denounce any rhetoric that describes these acts as anything but terrorism.”
He added: “I stand, and we should all stand, united in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.”
