A New York City restaurateur claimed he “86’d” James Corden from his restaurant, before U-turning on his stance after the TV host “apologised profusely”.
Keith McNally, who owns popular restaurant Balthazar, said in an Instagram post on Monday (17 October) that Corden was allegedly “the most abusive customer” towards his staff.
He posted two examples of the Late Late Show host’s apparent bad behaviour from his restaurant managers’ reports, including an instance where Corden was allegedly “extremely nasty” and “yelled like crazy” at staff.
The controversial businessman claimed in his post: “I don’t often 86 a customer, today I 86’d Corden.”
While McNally later gave an update, in which he said he would rescind the ban after Corden’s apology, many people are wondering what it means to “86” someone.
The American term “86” means to eject a person from a restaurant, bar or any other type of venue and is slang among those who work in hospitality.
Generally, a person who was “86’d” indicates that they are no longer welcome on the premises.
Some social media users have pointed out that it takes rather egregious behaviour in order for a manager to declare a customer be “86’d” from their establishment.
“I’ve never met James Corden, but I worked in restaurants for years and if you get 86’d from a place, that means you’re the absolute worst,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another said: “Ya know you f***ed up if the restaurant owner 86’d ya from the premises lol.”
A third added: “Getting 86’d from a restaurant is real hard, you have to be an incredible piece of work for a place to not want your money. If someone’s 86’d, chances are high they were an embarrassing piece of s*** the night of the incident.”
However, it appears that being 86’d may not be a permanent strike against a person, if an appropriate apology is made.
In his initial post, McNally claimed that Corden had been to Balthazar in June and October.
On his visit in the summer, the post quoted a manager’s report as saying that Corden “showed the hair” after eating his main course to a manager known as “G”.
“Corden was extremely nasty to G and said: ‘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 [sic]’,” the post read.
The second visit took place on 9 October, with Corden’s wife Julia Carey present. According to McNally, Carey ordered an omelette that arrived with an error and was sent back to the kitchen to be remade.
However, the new omelette was served with fries instead of a salad as Carey had ordered.
McNally quoted the manager’s report as saying: “James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’”
After the manager G gave the couple glasses of champagne to “smooth things out”, Corden allegedly was “pleasant” to him but continued being “nasty” to the server.
The restaurateur described Corden as a “tiny cretin of a man”, but in his second post said he “strongly believed in second chances” after receiving an apology.
In his second post, McNally wrote: “Anyone magnanimous enough to apologise to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. All is forgiven.”
The Independent has contacted Corden’s representative for comment.
