To err is human; to forgive, divine. So said Alexander Pope, and who’s going to argue with the second-most quoted author in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations? Not I.
Well, I might be more inclined to argue with him — I’m not always the most agreeable sort — were he not expressing a very biblical truth about broken humanity and a compassionate God.
I don’t know how much restaurateur Keith McNally knows about Pope — or the Bible, for that matter — but he seems to know a little bit about compassion.
McNally, owner of the well-known Balthazar French restaurant in New York City’s SoHo district, has become well-known for his Instagram posts. Monday afternoon, he posted that he had kicked “Late Late Show” host James Corden from his establishment.
Happily, the story didn’t end there.
“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” McNally wrote in an Instagram post Monday. “I don’t often 86 a customer, to today I 86’d Corden. It did not make me laugh.”
McNally listed two “manager’s reports” that detailed the objectionable treatment Corden had given his staff.
The first report read: “In June, James Corden was here on table 61. (Although this is diabolical, it happens Very occasionally in all restaurants.) After eating his main course, Corden showed the hair to Balthazar manager G. who was very apologetic. Corden was extremely nasty to G, and said: ‘Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I [won’t] write any nasty reviews in yelp or anything like that.’”
Have you ever watched ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’?
The second read: “James Corden was at Balthazar with his wife on October 9th for brunch. He asked for a table outside. Brunch Maitre D’ Allie Wolters took the party to table 301. Mr. Corden’s wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad. That’s when James Corden began 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!’ M.K. was very apologetic and brought G. over to the table. He returned the dish, and after that, everything was fine. He gave them promo Champagne glasses to smooth things out. G. said that Corden was pleasant to him but nasty to the server. M.K. was very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift.”
Frankly, rather than reward Corden’s behavior with champagne, I probably would have agreed that he should cook the omelette himself — in his own kitchen. As far away from my staff as possible.
That’s most of the reason why I’m not in the restaurant business. (The fact that I’d eat up all my profits would be the rest of the reason.)
My point is that banning Corden from the restaurant seems to me to be a very reasonable response. Tame, even.
But that response — or possibly the shame of having his behavior publicized on an Instagram page with about 81,000 followers, many of whom no doubt represent the most inner circles of New York society — was enough to get Corden’s attention, and lead to a happier ending.
“James Corden just called me and apologized profusely,” McNally wrote on the social media site roughly seven hours after the earlier post. “Having f***ed up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances. So if James Corden lets me host his Late Late Show for 9 months, I’ll immediately rescind his ban from Balthazar. No, of course not. But … anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn’t deserve to be banned from anywhere. Especially Balthazar. So Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Corden, Jimmy Corden. All is Forgiven. xx”
You could almost make this into an allegory — Corden as the fallen, imperfect Every Man he’s made a successful career of portraying; Balthazar as Eden (or Heaven) from which sinful man has been forbidden; McNally as a forgiving God.
Almost. I’m not quite ready to consider Balthazar as Heaven’s equivalent. The prices look remarkably reasonable for New York City, but I’m not a huge fan of French cuisine.
As for McNally as God, well … There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.
But the principle remains. You might wish to use a different term for it, but the fact of the matter is that Corden sinned. He sinned against his fellow humans, made in the image of God, as well as against God himself for failing to live up to the so-called Golden Rule: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets,” Jesus commanded.
Of course, none of us do that perfectly. Most of us don’t even do it all that well. That’s why God is justified in saying “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and, in a less-quoted verse, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
Sin has consequences. Would that the worst thing my own failings had ever reaped was to be publicly banned from a restaurant. As a pastor and friend is wont to say, sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay.
But if McNally, a broken man himself by his own admission — granted, his language was a little more colorful — can forgive, how much more will a God who is perfect in love and compassion forgive us our sins — and save us from their eternal consequences? “[I]f you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” Paul promises us.
That means there’s hope for anyone who will do those two things — confess and believe. Hope for James Corden. Hope for me.
And plenty of hope for you too, my friend.
