Latest news with #GrubStreet
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NYC restaurateur claims Patti Smith reduced waitress to tears over bread service: ‘The James Corden of her day'
New York City restaurateur Keith McNally has claimed that singer Patti Smith was 'incredibly rude' to his waitstaff. McNally owns a number of famous food spots in the city, including Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern. He also made headlines in 2022 when he briefly banned James Corden from Balthazar after the actor was allegedly 'abusive' to the restaurant's staff. In an excerpt of his forthcoming memoir, I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir, shared with New York Magazine's Grub Street, McNally remembers working at the One Fifth restaurant in the Seventies. As the restaurant's at the time, he often saw Smith and her then-boyfriend, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Mapplethorpe's ex, the late Sam Wagstaff, dining at the iconic spot. According to McNally, the then-famous couple were not the easiest customers. He made multiple claims about the 'Gloria' singer's unkind behaviour at the restaurant. 'Smith and Mapplethorpe could be very difficult to wait on,' the restaurant owner writes in the memoir. 'Smith, unfortunately, was incredibly rude to the servers. It's impossible for me to listen to a Patti Smith song today without remembering her reducing a waitress to tears because she forgot to put bread on the table.' McNally notes that Mapplethorpe, meanwhile, 'never tried to belittle' his waitstaff. The Independent has contacted Smith's assistant for comment. On March 30, McNally also shared an Instagram post about his experience with Smith at One Fifth. In the caption, he reiterated his claims that Smith was 'unbelievably rude to servers' and that the staff dreaded her visits. 'I spent four years at One Fifth and Smith was - by a country mile - the customer least liked by the servers. In fact, there was always a squabble whenever she'd arrive because none of the staff wanted to wait on her. She was the James Cordon of her day,' he wrote. He went on to praise Wagstaff, saying that there are 'only three people' he wished he'd gotten to know better, and 'Sam Wagstaff is one of them.' Back in October 2022, McNally branded former Late Late Show host James Corden a 'tiny cretin of a man' and banned him from Balthazar over his alleged treatment of the staff. He called Corden 'the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago' and said, in true restaurant lingo, that he '86'd' Corden. McNally went on to describe 'two examples of the funny man's treatment of my staff,' including an instance where Corden was allegedly 'extremely nasty' and 'yelled like crazy' at staff. The Gavin & Stacey actor later admitted that he made 'a rude, rude comment' to a restaurant worker and said 'it was never my intention' to upset the staff at Balthazar. McNally rescinded the ban shortly after and claimed that Corden had 'apologized profusely.' 'But anyone magnanimous enough to apologise to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn't deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar,' he wrote in an Instagram post at the time. 'All is forgiven.' I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir is published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC, on May 6.
Boston Globe
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
GrubStreet's executive director to step down
'We have grown and flourished beyond my wildest expectations,' she said in a statement. 'With success at our backs and a bright future ahead, the time is right for me to pass the baton.' Under Bridburg's direction, GrubStreet expanded from a small organization with two classrooms into a writing center that has worked with nearly 60,000 adult students over the years, awarding more than 4,000 scholarships. Advertisement The organization also raised some $8 million to build out its airy new location in the Seaport, where Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But the Seaport move coincided with what was perhaps the organization's biggest controversy: Fallout from The article roiled the nonprofit, prompting its board to announce it would hire an independent expert to review the situation. 'Bluntly, we are appalled by the disconnect between GrubStreet's stated values and the alleged behavior by some that has come to light,' the board's executive committee wrote in an email at the time. 'GrubStreet is meant to be a nurturing and supportive environment.' Advertisement Four years later, board chair Sharissa Jones praised Bridburg's leadership. 'Under Eve's direction, GrubStreet has revolutionized how we think about access to writing education and how we teach it,' she said in a statement. 'I am confident that we will find another amazing leader to chart our evolution in the years ahead.' Michael Bobbit, executive director of the Mass Cultural Council, called GrubStreet 'one of Boston's most important cultural resources.' 'GrubStreet's mission of ensuring that all voices are heard and that every human story is respected is even more urgent in these times,' he said in a statement. The writing center has worked with thousands of teens over the years, and offered year-long novel and memoir incubators. 'I've watched GrubStreet grow from a scrappy, DIY writing center to a huge and thriving community of teachers and storytellers,' Steve Almond, an author, GrubStreet instructor, and occasional Globe contributor, said in a statement. 'It's supported me and other writers, allowed us to teach thousands of students, and created a space where writers of all sorts have come together to feel more inspired and less alone.' Malcolm Gay can be reached at
New York Times
14-02-2025
- Business
- New York Times
4,000 Applications for Outdoor Dining. 39 Licenses Issued.
During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, desperate New York City restaurants found a financial lifeline by expanding seating outdoors. Dining sheds began popping up without much city oversight, somewhat haphazardly reshaping the city's streets. At outdoor dining's peak, there were nearly 13,000 sheds outside restaurants — some costly and elaborate, others dingy huts that served as many rats as people. Most sat on the roadway in spaces where cars used to park. While the al fresco dining options were popular with many New Yorkers, some complained about sheds becoming eyesores and oversized trash bins, and some politicians expressed concern about the sheds' impact on street parking. Last year, after wrangling involving the mayor, the City Council and the restaurant industry, the city ordered all the sheds to be taken down as it formalized a permanent outdoor dining program to begin this spring. Some 4,000 applications have been submitted for roadway and sidewalk licenses. But as Grub Street first reported, many angry restaurant owners say they are stuck in a bureaucratic maze ahead of the busiest dining season. With the start just weeks away on April 1, only 39 licenses have been approved. 'Without roadway dining, I don't want to continue in this business,' said Philip Guardione, the chef and owner of Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana. 'You need outside dining, or you kill restaurants.' Faced with such an extensive backlog, the Department of Transportation, which initially reviews and approves the applications, announced on Thursday that businesses could open their outdoor structures — on either the sidewalk or roadway — on April 1 without a license. As long as the restaurant had submitted a completed application and was following the program's rules, it would not be subject to fines. The backlog has angered the New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, whose office issues the licenses after the Department of Transportation reviews them. Mr. Lander said the program was important for the city's finances, providing nearly $10 million in annual sales-tax revenue during the pandemic. 'Spring is almost here, and restaurants owners are running out of time to design new outdoor seating and obtain liquor licenses,' Mr. Lander, who is running for mayor, said in a statement. The Department of Transportation, he added, needed to speed up its work and 'start sending their permits to this office.' On Thursday, the Transportation Department said that staff members had finished reviewing more than a thousand applications for outdoor dining structures on roadways and expected to approve hundreds of them before April 1. 'We are proud that outdoor dining is now a permanent part of our city's streetscape and have reviewed every roadway application we have received,' said Vincent Barone, the department spokesman. 'As required by the law passed by the City Council, reviews are underway by community boards, council members and the comptroller. The comptroller should take up his concerns with the City Council.' Even before the reprieve was announced on Thursday, some restaurants awaiting approval had planned to still open on April 1 despite the risk of fines. They are hiring additional staff and have already paid for the sheds to be designed and fabricated, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Many restaurant owners were reluctant to speak openly about their frustrations with the city's slow approval process, saying they did not want to jeopardize their applications. They said that as the costs to operate restaurants soars — from personnel to food to rent — al fresco dining had become essential for survival, allowing them to expand their footprint, serve more customers and bring in more money. Mr. Guardione said his payroll costs have jumped 50 percent since before the pandemic, while some produce has increased 40 percent. His 700-square-foot restaurant in SoHo must generate $7,000 to $8,000 in revenue every night to survive, he said. Mathias Van Leyden, who owns the French restaurant Loulou in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, said he expected the city would sign off on his outdoor dining space before April 1. 'We spent a lot of money to do it,' said Mr. Van Leyden, whose restaurant had a shed made of reclaimed wood and colorful bouquets. 'And it's beautiful for the community.' Under the bill the City Council passed in August 2023 to make outdoor dining permanent, sheds can only stay up from spring to early winter and must share basic design guidelines, including limitations on size, proximity to the street and the materials allowed. Restaurants were required to submit their applications for the new outdoor dining program in August to the city's Department of Transportation, which is overseeing outdoor dining on both sidewalks and roadways. About 3,000 restaurants applied. While the department had said that final approval would then take about five or six months, it took the department several months just to read through them before the formal review could begin, several people involved in the process said. The department has hired more employees to handle all of them and is now nearly fully staffed. Hundreds of applications have been sent back to restaurants because they were incomplete. The most common issue has been restaurants not providing full details on their site plans, which must include a drawing of the outdoor dining setup and identify its distance to nearby objects like mailboxes and fire hydrants. But sign-off from the Department of Transportation is just one step in the lengthy process before a restaurant can move tables outdoors. Restaurant owners also have to present their proposals to local community boards and advisory groups made up of activists and civic leaders. While those groups do not have an up-down vote on the plans, their recommendations are submitted to the Transportation Department for consideration before approval. Some boards have sought large-scale changes, such as reducing the dimensions of sheds, restaurant owners said. Even after the comptroller office issues a license, restaurants then need to seek approval from the State Liquor Authority to serve alcohol outside. So far, just four restaurants with outdoor-dining licenses have been authorized to serve alcohol outside, the authority said. Steven Abramowitz, who co-owns three well-known Manhattan restaurants, Cafe Cluny, Cafe Luxembourg and the Odeon, said he had been trying to get answers from the city on the status of their sidewalk and roadway applications. He questioned whether it was worth opening on April 1, as the Department of Transportation will now allow, if the State Liquor Authority will not issue alcohol permits without licenses. 'They presented it as a very simple process but it absolutely is not,' Mr. Abramowitz. 'The whole thing is pretty arduous.'
