New York City restaurateur and cultural truth-teller Keith McNally is pulling no punches in his forthcoming memoir *I Regret Almost Everything*, and this time, it’s a left-wing music icon taking the heat. McNally, known for running some of Manhattan’s hottest restaurants like Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern, is shining a light on the arrogance and entitlement often masked by the Left’s favorite “rebel artists.”
In a sneak peek of his memoir published by *Grub Street*, McNally recalls a disturbing encounter with punk poet and progressive darling Patti Smith, whose rude behavior at the upscale One Fifth restaurant in the 1970s reportedly left one waitress in tears. That’s right—one of the supposed queens of counterculture, who’s spent decades portraying herself as a voice for the voiceless, allegedly had no problem belittling a young waitress for the crime of forgetting to serve bread.
McNally’s recollection paints a very different picture from the one mainstream media and liberal elites have sold us. Smith, who dined frequently with then-boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe and his ex, Sam Wagstaff, was reportedly “incredibly rude to the servers,” according to McNally. “It’s impossible for me to listen to a Patti Smith song today without remembering her reducing a waitress to tears,” he wrote.
So much for standing up for the little guy.
Meanwhile, McNally was quick to point out that Mapplethorpe, a man also known for pushing cultural boundaries, never once attempted to belittle staff. It seems that, in this case, it was the so-called feminist icon who showed the least class.
Unsurprisingly, the story struck a nerve online. “He’s not lying about Patti Smith,” one commenter affirmed on social media. “I witnessed her rudeness years ago working a banquet.” Another chimed in with heartbreak: “The Patti Smith is rude to servers comment just broke my heart.”
Of course, the usual defenders were quick to ride to Smith’s rescue, insisting she has “mellowed out” or that maybe the waitress was just “very sensitive.” That’s a common refrain from the liberal elite: it’s never their fault—it’s yours for not understanding their “artistic temperament.”
This isn’t McNally’s first time standing up for hardworking staff. In 2022, he famously banned British comedian James Corden from his Balthazar restaurant after Corden verbally abused servers. McNally labeled him the “most abusive customer” in the restaurant’s 25-year history and called him a “tiny cretin of a man.” Only after Corden offered a personal apology did McNally lift the ban.
Here’s the bottom line: Keith McNally is doing something we need more of—calling out the hypocrisy of celebrity elites who preach compassion and humility while treating everyday workers like dirt. And while Hollywood and the liberal press scramble to protect their icons, the rest of us are left asking why so many of these self-proclaimed “heroes of the people” can’t seem to treat actual people with basic decency.
McNally’s memoir, *I Regret Almost Everything*, hits shelves May 6. If this preview is any indication, it might just be a refreshing dose of truth in a culture addicted to coddling its worst elites.
