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Balthazar (restaurant)

Balthazar is a French brasserie restaurant located at 80 Spring Street (between Broadway and Crosby Street) in SoHo in Manhattan, in New York City. It opened on April 21, 1997, and is owned by British-born restaurateur Keith McNally.^: 182

McNally also owns Pastis, Cafe Luxembourg, Lucky Strike, the Russian-themed bar and restaurant Pravda, Odeon in Tribeca, and Schiller's Liquor Bar on the Lower East Side. Balthazar Bakery was later opened at 80 Spring Street. McNally opened Balthazar in the theatre district in Covent Garden in London, in February 2013.

Description

Among its dishes are steak au poivre, steak frites, short ribs, beef stroganoff, duck confit, butternut squash, skate, and French onion soup. Balthazar typically serves around 1,500 guests a day, and its most popular dish is steak frites; the restaurant can sell 200 per day. Out of more than 200 employees, two full-time prep cooks are required just to handle potatoes for frying. It is also known for its raw bar.^: 468 The head chef is Shane McBride, who was preceded by Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr.

The SoHo building that houses Balthazar used to be occupied by a tannery. Balthazar's design was intended to resemble that of a brasserie, with high-backed red leather banquettes, scarred and peeling brass oversize mirrors, high tin ceiling, scuffed tiled floor, faded saffron yellow walls, large windows, and antique lighting.^: 182 The restaurant seats 180 people. Balthazar is also known for celebrity-watching; in 2012, Fodor's ranked it # 1 in New York City in that category.

In 2013, Zagat's gave Balthazar a food rating of 24 (out of 30), a decor rating of 24, and ranked it the second best French brasserie restaurant in New York City. That year, the New York Daily News rated its French onion soup the second-best in the city.

Balthazar made headlines in 2022 when comedian and actor James Corden was banned from the restaurant by owner Keith McNally, after reportedly being "abusive" and "extremely nasty" to staff. The ban was later rescinded after Corden apologised to McNally in private and in public, admitting that he had been "ungracious."

In popular culture

Balthazar is featured in the 2009 autobiography Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School, by Katherine Darling (Simon & Schuster), in the 2010 novel The Associate, by John Grisham (Random House), in the 2010 novel Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin (Macmillan), in the 2010 novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, by Rebecca Goldstein (Random House), in the 2011 juvenile fiction novel Holiday Spirit, by Zoe Evans (Simon & Schuster), in the 2011 autobiography Innocent Spouse: A Memoir, by Carol Ross Joynt (Random House), and in the 2012 novel The Stolen Chalice, by Kitty Pilgrim (Simon & Schuster). In November 1999, comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld proposed to Jessica Sklar at Balthazar. As the ultimate tribute, shortly after opening it was parodied as the blazing hot über-cool “Balzac” in the fifth episode of the first season of Sex and the City, entitled “The Power of Female Sex.”