Anna Wintour Was ‘Absolutely Horrid’ to Raoul’s Staff, Former Worker Claims [Update]

It’s been a big week for celebrity reckonings at Manhattan restaurants. First, James Corden was banned, then unbanned, from Balthazar for being the French bistro’s “most abusive customer” in 25 years. Now, a former employee of Raoul’s alleges that Anna Wintour was “absolutely horrid” to the French restaurant’s staff. The Vogue editor would “march in” without a reservation, order her steak “very rare,” and demand her food be served “immediately,” claims Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, who chronicled his experiences with Wintour and other celebrities in his forthcoming book Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D’. “God forbid it was the least bit overcooked,” he writes. “She’d look at the server as though he’d just served her rat and have it sent back and redone.”

Correction: October 24, 2022, 12:37 p.m. This article was corrected to reflect that the alleged incidents occurred at Raoul’s, not Le Coucou, where Michael Cecchi-Azzolina worked as maitre d’.

Chef behind Cosme and Pujol teams up with Shake Shack

Enrique Olvera, the acclaimed chef behind Mexican restaurants Cosme, in Manhattan, and Pujol, in Mexico City, will team up with Shake Shack for a one-night tasting menu on November 10. The three-course dinner, priced at $75 per person, will unfold at the burger chain’s West Village outpost at 225 Varick Street, at Clarkson Street. Expect dishes like corn and potato tamales and cheeseburgers with ant mayonnaise. Tickets are available for tables of two with three seatings between 5 and 8:15 p.m.

Famed bialy shop Kossar’s to expand across Manhattan

One of the city’s great bialy shops is preparing to expand. Kossar’s, which has been open on the Lower East Side since 1936, is opening a handful of new locations across Manhattan, according to West Side Rag. First up was a bagel shop at Hudson Yards, which opened earlier this summer, while another outpost on the Upper East Side is listed as “coming soon” online. The company has since posted signage on an Upper West Side space that used to be home to Pier 72 Diner, at 270 W. 72nd Street, at West End Avenue.

Meatpacking nightclub evicted over unpaid rent

1Oak, a Meatpacking District nightclub where celebrities like Lil Nas X and Megan Thee Stallion partied before the pandemic, has been evicted over roughly $1.8 million in unpaid rent, according to the New York Post. The venue was apparently “in a tough place” even before the pandemic, says co-owner Richie Akiva, also behind shuttered nightlife spot Up&Down. Akiva previously said that 1Oak, which closed as the city’s pandemic restrictions went into effect, would return “in full force,” but it never reopened.