Keith McNally’s Latest Controversies, Explained

Keith McNally’s name crops up in tabloid headlines with shocking frequency for a restaurateur. You might remember when he called out James Corden (twice). Now McNally is at the center of yet another storm, this time over remarks he made on Instagram regarding the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel. Those who don’t know him may be shocked, but those familiar with the London-born restaurateur know he has been making waves—and causing controversy—for decades.

Since McNally began opening restaurants in the ’80s he has been a scene maker, as he will undoubtedly detail in his upcoming memoir. He owns celeb-magnet restaurants including Balthazar, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi in New York, and offshoots of his original restaurants have opened internationally. Some four decades later, McNally’s restaurants remain as buzzy as ever.

But McNally himself is increasingly an object of fascination, in part due to his well-followed Instagram feed where he frequently courts controversy. For those just becoming acquainted with the restaurateur, here’s what to know.

McNally is not afraid to speak his mind—and stir up scandal

In 2020 COVID shut down McNally’s entire restaurant empire, which, along with recent divorce expenses, “cost me 10 million dollars,” he said in a 2021 interview with Grub Street. “It left me not giving a fuck what anyone thinks of me,” he said in the same interview, which may be the genesis of some of his more recent controversies. The restaurateur has a rich history of saying whatever the hell he wants—often leaving scandal and outrage in his wake.

Most recently, McNally drew ire from many over an Instagram post in which he addressed the conflict between Israel and Palestine. In a now-deleted Instagram post on October 9 showing a volley of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel, he wrote, “The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.” The backlash was immediate, with people condemning his post as antisemitic and swearing to never eat in his restaurants again.

In his comments section, McNally initially did not let up. “My older brother Peter risked his life spying for Israel. Everything you describe in your comment is Utterly Repugnant to me,” McNally responded to one critic, according to the New York Post. “This doesn’t mean Forgive. It means Listen. There’s nothing ever to lose by listening.” On October 10 he deleted the post, then followed up by posting two more text-only Instagram posts that condemned Hamas’ actions and affirmed his support for the Palestinian people. Then on October 12, he posted yet again, sharing that he’d received 4,000 hate messages in the wake of his initial comments. “Whatever happened to Free Speech in America? This is not Germany in 1938. Persecuting someone unjustly is a form of terrorism,” reads part of his caption. 

In response to McNally’s initial post, several prominent restaurateurs allegedly threatened to never set foot in one of his restaurants again, and his business partners in Balthazar and Morandi asked him to take it down, according to Page Six. (McNally denied that he had spoken to either of his partners about the post.) By October 13 McNally resumed his usual posting cadence—service reports, personal anecdotes, and musings—as if nothing happened, and comments on his posts are now mostly positive again.

McNally has voiced controversial takes on a wide swath of current events over the years. In July of this year, he revealed that he was (and still is) a vehement supporter of Woody Allen. He also made waves when, in 2021, he posted seemingly in support of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. “Let’s not rush to judgment,” he wrote in an Instagram caption below an image of Maxwell. “Ghislaine Maxwell is currently innocent. She must be given a fair trial. Due Process is the core of democracy,” the rest of the caption reads. 

Commenters were angry. “You’re insane,” reads one. “Damn dude CANCELED,” reads another. In typical McNally fashion, there wasn’t quite an apology so much as another post explaining the original. Several days later he posted another picture of Maxwell with a caption in which he wrote “I was NOT defending Maxwell. I was defending her RIGHT to a fair trial. I HAPPEN TO THINK SHE WAS GUILTY, but i don’t KNOW it 100%.”

McNally’s pugilistic approach to public discourse extends to his relationship with restaurant critics as well. After a one-star review from New York’s Adam Platt in 2010, McNally wrote a letter to Platt, calling the restaurant critic “bald” and “fat” and said that he was “incapable of reviewing lively downtown restaurants impartially.” When a similarly negative review of Morandi, led at the time by chef Jody Williams, appeared in the New York Times, McNally accused former restaurant critic Frank Bruni of sexism. According to McNally, the critic had never given a female chef more than a single star at the time.

Bruni never formally responded to the letter, but he did call McNally a “horrible man” later that year. Platt was a bit more loquacious and generous in his response. “I respect Mr. McNally, of course, and have praised the food and atmosphere at many of his ‘busy, exuberant’ restaurants in the past,” he wrote. “As always, in these cases, he is entitled to his opinion and I, as a bald, middle-aged and, alas (slightly) overweight professional restaurant critic, am entitled to mine.”

More recently, McNally called Graydon Carter, longtime Vanity Fair editor and cofounder of “AirMail,” a “fancy fucker” for ghosting on a reservation at his restaurant, Morandi. He also said in a 273-word rant that the Tin Building, Jean Georges Vongerichten's latest restaurant complex, “epitomizes the Very Worst of New York,” and—in incredibly McNallyesque fashion—wrote, “Say what you like about Mario Batali, but his Eataly was spot on. The Tin Building is not.” More McNallyesque still: Three months later he actually visited the complex and “COMPLETELY CHANGED MY MIND.” He writes, “I’m loath to admit it, but I absolutely loved the place. I should now do the Right Thing and apologize to everyone involved with the market…for being so fucking wrong about it.”

Despite some of his reprehensible and head-scratching takes, McNally’s fans (and probably a not-small number of his haters) continue to follow along closely. His restaurants remain popular and his posts still garner thousands of likes.

Many of McNally’s restaurants have become celeb magnets

McNally’s constellation of restaurants around Manhattan represent a specific slice of New York City dining culture—one of casual glamor and luxury. His restaurant career began with the Odeon, which he opened in the early ’80s. It became a hangout for such characters as Andy Warhol, Robert De Niro, and Madonna. A 2004 profile in the New York Times dubbed him “The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown.” Anna Wintour, the fashion icon (and global chief content officer at Condé Nast, Bon Appétit’s parent company) is perhaps one of the most consistent McNally devotees, but according to nightly reports from managers at his restaurants that he posts on social media, other guests have included the likes of Eddie Redmayne, Natalie Portman, and Olivier Sarkozy, among others.

His Instagram is as highly trafficked and drama-filled as his restaurants

McNally’s lack of a filter is a large part of why scandal seems to follow him everywhere. But that’s not to say his online feed is only filled with questionable takes. He posts frequently—often multiple times a day—with candid snapshots of what he’s thinking. Sometimes the posts veer into the…intimate, like one where he’s pictured coyly lifting his hospital gown toward the camera in his hospital room post-vasectomy. 

There’s also introspection and self-aware musing on the restaurant industry, as well as pictures of the man himself posing with longtime employees, and anecdotes of his many, many celebrity run-ins. McNally describes a “torrid love affair” with Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley. He announces a $500 bonus and a paid vacation to Chechnya for Balthazar’s employee of the month. He often emphasizes his deep belief in giving people a second chance. He reflects on complicated relationships with his parents. 

Whether followers come to get an insider’s view on the restaurant industry or to participate in one of many frequent arguments in the comments of McNally’s posts, the raw, sometimes problematic nature of his Instagram presence has proven to be irresistible for many. It is useless trying to predict what he will post next.

This story was updated on October 19 to reflect McNally's comments on Israel and Palestine.