Keith McNally Promises to Keep Bathroom Attendants Employed, Calls Henry Blodget A Bully

 

Image credit: Eric Ray Davidson

So, uh, remember how yesterday millionaire/editor/securities fraud guy Henry Blodget suggested on the internet that Keith McNally fire all the bathroom attendants at Soho hotspot Balthazar, because, among other things, he didn’t like a stranger watching him peeing? Remember when McNally surprisingly agreed with Blodget, and announced that he’d actually fire the bathroom attendants? Well, there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is: the bathroom attendants will immediately be trained for new jobs at Balthazar, hopefully one that doesn’t turn them into human vending machines.

The bad news: Now Keith McNally is saying that this is all Henry Blodget’s fault. The firing, the re-hiring, the everything. Okay, yes, technically it’s Blodget’s fault that 1) this issue blew up in the first place, and 2) that a hasty postscript to his original article mentioned that he hoped McNally would keep his staffers employed — the postscript to which McNally responded, according to First We Feast.

But either his sarcasm meter is a bit off (which could have happened), or he’s actually annoyed that Henry Blodget is forcing his hand on all matters bathroom-related:

Not content that I’ve agreed with his rather aggressive suggestion that I relieve my bathroom attendants of their jobs, Henry Blodget is now asking me to “hire and train as dining room staff” the people he yesterday petitioned me to fire. Surely, as Balthazar is my restaurant and these are my employees (whom I adore as it happens) I should decide matters myself without the bullying intrusion of Mr Blodget’s high-pitched and high-minded advice.

What’s more, to receive such high-minded advice from a man who’s been charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a bit like receiving a lesson in business ethics from Bernie Madoff. Of course, those who have had business dealings with Mr Blodget may say it’s slightly worse.

The takeaway this time is that McNally will immediately give his former bathroom attendants another job at his company, which would have been nice, had it not been for those two paragraphs above immediately preceding his announcement. And yeah, while we feel really, really icky for agreeing with Blodget (who actually did commit civil securities fraud, leading to a lifetime ban from the securities trade), wouldn’t it have been much simpler to just say that you’re not actually firing-firing your employees the first time around?

We guess that when one has all that money floating around, one doesn’t really need to do things like “communicate one’s intentions well,” or all that stuff that the plebes have to deal with.

(We’re still mining that bitcoin, by the way.)

[First We Feast]

RELATED:
Millionaire Tells Keith McNally to Fire Balthazar’s Bathroom Attendants, McNally Actually Does It
Gael Greene & Keith McNally Confirm Pastis Is Closing, Clear Up Balthazar Rumors
Restaurateur Keith McNally’s Actorly Past Involved The West End, Strip Clubs, And Maybe Embezzlement

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

Filed Under: