Keith McNally bans ‘fancy f–ker’ editor Graydon Carter from NYC hotspots
Fiery New York restaurateur Keith McNally wants to see Graydon Carter’s head on a plate.
City dining mogul McNally ripped famed former Vanity Fair editor Carter as a “fancy F–ker” Thursday and banned him from his eateries after Carter made a reservation for 12 at McNally’s buzzy restaurant Morandi, then failed to show up.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” McNally wrote on Instagram. “That fancy F–ker will never be allowed to make a reservation at one of my restaurants again. Never.”
McNally, who is the owner of NYC hotspots including Balthazar and Pastis, and formerly a close friend of Carter, said that he had specially prepared Morandi to impress the powerful editor.
“Because Mr. Carter’s a restaurateur himself, my chef, manager and floor staff were eager for the lunch to go perfectly for him,” he wrote.
“Extra staff were brought in to help with service, and two tables of six were meticulously set up and ready for Graydon Carter by 1 p.m. Only he didn’t show up at 1 p.m.”
McNally said Morandi was packed and people were waiting for tables while Carter’s table just sat empty.
Finally, his staff found out they had been stood up.
“Around 2 p.m. Graydon Carter’s assistant called to say Mr Carter wasn’t coming, but the celebrated editor and had forgotten to call and cancel,” McNally wrote. “By forgetting to call and cancel his party of 12, Mr Carter had upset the equilibrium of the restaurant, and cost the servers money in tips (And had cost Morandi money too.)
“Graydon Carter had done this very same thing before. Once at Minetta Tavern and twice at Balthazar,” he added.
“Perhaps being something of a social bigwig, Mr Carter thinks he is above having to cancel restaurant reservations. Perhaps. But I’ll tell you one thing. That fancy F–ker will never be allowed to make a reservation at one of my restaurants again. Never.”
He added to a commenter that his staff didn’t call Carter because “Mostly they know he’s a friend of mine. (Or was.)”
This isn’t the first time McNally has served up a heated Instagram controversy — he previously came to the aid of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Back in February, McNally commented that a 25-year-old fashion buyer, whom he’d never met, “looked like a hooker.”
Then he praised Woody Allen and Soon-Yi for appearing at Balthazar via Instagram, captioning the picture, “I’ve never been as happy at Balthazar as I was last night to see the beautiful Soon-Yi and her husband dining there.”
That post was covered on Carter’s latest magazine, Air Mail, on May 15, which described McNally as “going off the menu,” and called the restaurateur a “sometimes dour 69-year-old with fewer than 15,000 followers on Instagram,” which couldn’t have helped their friendship either.
Carter said in a statement to Page Six, “My office did forget to cancel the lunch reservation until a bit after 1:30, which is wretched and we will be making a donation today to the restaurant’s tip pool to cover what the staff would have made.
“As a fellow restaurateur I fully understand the implications of a large party no show.
“As for the rest of McNally’s deranged rant, it is pure fiction. I rarely eat at his places and this all stems from the story we did about his most recent Instagram controversies in last week’s Air Mail.”