James Corden has played host regularly on The Late Late Show for years, but it seems like he has a lot to learn about being a good guest before exiting the program in 2023. On Monday, the outgoing late-night television anchor was publicly banned from the upscale New York restaurant Balthazar by owner Keith McNally, who labeled Corden “the most abusive customer” via Instagram.
The acclaimed restaurateur began the post by calling Corden “a tiny Cretin of a man” and shared two manager reports of alleged instances of his poor treatment of restaurant staff. The first alleges Corden was “extremely nasty” to a restaurant manager and told them “‘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 [sic] or anything like that.’”
The post suggests a second encounter occurred recently on October 9th when Corden and his wife, Julia Carey, were at Balthazar for brunch. Corden allegedly requested his wife’s dish to be returned due to egg whites mixing in with egg yolk, and a subsequent mix-up of sides for the replacement platter caused Corden, according to the manager’s report, to begin “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 omelette myself!’”
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McNally noted the server was “very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift.” The public shaming comes with a heavy weight as the revered owner conceded the television host is “a Hugely gifted comedian” before also giving him the distinction of “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
“I don’t often 86 a customer,” McNally shared. “Today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh.” See the full post below.