July 2, 2002 -- Backstage tantrums at Smith

THE closing of Brian McNally's latest eatery, Smith, has
prompted a couple of disgruntled former employees to crawl
out of the woodwork and blast the restaurateur as a
dining-room despot.

Smith opened in January on East First Street with the likes of
Sophie Dahl, Christopher Hitchens, Lou Reed and Laurie
Anderson among its clientele. But the hipster hangout was
shuttered recently, putting its 70 staffers out of work.

Byron Bates, Smith's former general manager, claims he quit
months ago because of McNally's "endless tirades, his
disregard for bills, his bizarre hatred of fat girls, and the fact
that he never paid me a penny."

But McNally says he fired Bates in March for his "absolute
incompetence. I should have fired him the first week. I gave
him every opportunity."

Bates fumes, "My life was thrown into turmoil. My landlord
threatened to evict me and my credit cards were cut off.
I've never heard a word from [McNally]."

He recalls the night McNally, known for hiring good-looking
waitresses, showed up at Smith to find that Bates was
training an overweight young woman. "He slammed the wall
and yelled 'What the [bleep] is that fat girl doing on the
floor!,' Bates recalls. " 'Get rid of her right now.' "

Former bar manager Michael Ballentine says he, too,
witnessed McNally's tirades and also got stiffed. "He threw
tantrums, slammed walls and harassed people," Ballentine
says. "It was a nightmare . . . I worked like an animal, and
when I asked for my money, it was always a different
story."

But McNally insists he is on good terms with nearly
everyone who worked for him at Indochine, Canal Bar, 150
Wooster and '44.' He urged us to call former associates
Jonathan Morr, Michael Callahan, Geoffrey Zakarian and
several others.

"I've lent them money. I've gotten them jobs. I've
encouraged them when they opened their own restaurants,"
McNally said.

But he claims Bates and Ballentine "were absolutely useless.
It's ridiculous that people can conjure up this [bleep]."

McNally says Smith was a "moderate success" that would
have grossed $2.5 million a year, but credit card receipts
showed most customers came from uptown and out of town,
a difficult clientele to maintain. "It's a volatile business," he
noted.

"I couldn't spend that much time there," said McNally, who
plans to reopen the space as more of a neighborhood spot
with a cheaper menu.

McNally is busy working on his next project, a breathtaking
280-seat restaurant/lounge in the Carlton Hotel at 29th and
Madison, to open at the end of the year. Bates says he's
planning a restaurant of his own next winter.


- alex 7-03-2002 8:15 pm [add a comment]