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I Regret Almost Everything

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I Regret Almost Everything

By: Keith McNally
Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
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About this listen

The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis.

A memoir by the legendary proprietor of Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi, taking us from his gritty London childhood to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell’s. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about his stint as a child actor, his travels along the hippie trail, his wives and children, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety.

©2025 Keith McNally (P)2025 Simon & Schuster UK Culinary Food & Wine Professionals & Academics Witty

Critic Reviews

‘A magical, tender, revealing, rude, honest, very funny and very vulnerable book. It is about more than McNally’s gift for creating magicmaking restaurants – it also powerfully describes what goes on in his head: the self-reflection, the intellectual ambition, the relentless self-doubt. McNally writes with a novelist’s feel for what happens in the powerful silences between people. I was blown away. This is a frickin’ masterpiece that will be read and talked about for a long time’ (BILL BUFORD)
'WHAT. A. BOOK. Since I got my paws on this, children have been neglected, work forgotten and meals uneaten. You simply CANNOT stop reading it – it is even more delicious than the food in his restaurants. Those who know Keith McNally from media coverage and his own social media will probably assume his memoir is hilarious and fearless. And it is all that, but it's also extremely moving, insightful and jaw-droppingly surprising . . . Most of all, it is so beautifully written – you can hear his voice in every sentence, always the mark of a real writer . . . The non-fiction book of the summer' (HADLEY FREEMAN, on Instagram)
‘I have known Keith McNally for a very long time. I was curious to read his memoir to see how he remembers his amazing, creative and productive life. He shares his incredible ups and downs and writes with straightforward candour about his health challenges and how he bravely overcame them – all with his inimitable sense of humour. What a career and what a life!’ (MARTHA STEWART)
‘This memoir is a revelation. I can’t help but be surprised that a man as wildly successful as Keith McNally could be so riddled with self-doubt. Here’s hoping he can appreciate the fact that to all of his other considerable accomplishments, he can now add this engrossing, fearless and ultimately very moving book’ (JAY McINERNEY)
‘Moving and poignant, Keith McNally’s book shifts between the arc of his illness
and that of his work without any bitterness or self-pity’ (ANNA WINTOUR)
‘An incredible life, recounted with wit, humility and a surprising amount of vulnerability. Keith McNally is the architect of downtown New York’s café society as we know it, but in this memoir, he shows he is also a humbled man grappling with his own failings. In I Regret Almost Everything, he ultimately finds enough resilience to survive even himself' (PADMA LAKSHMI)
‘Keith McNally is one tough dude, having come back from a debilitating stroke with aplomb and humour. But he’s also tough on himself – for the mistakes he made and the opportunities he blew in a life otherwise marked by massive success. In this heartfelt memoir, he does his best to atone for his misdeeds while recounting remarkable tales of romance, adventure and survival’ (GRIFFIN DUNNE)

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Love Richard E Grant laughing as he reads

This book is thoroughly enjoyable. More memoir, than autobiography, I admire McNally’s humbleness and honestly as he tells the rails of his life, career and success.

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bullseye

compelling, juicy, frank, warts and all - an illuminating work of self inquiry, self deprecation and insight over a 60-plus year lifespan that refreshingly isn’t about celebrities and renovations, where the ego and the shadow are on the menu!

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