Joyce Wadler at the Times stalks Keith McNally until he gets sick of her. Mr. McNally, who has bumbled into success with Balthazar, Pastis, and now Schiller's Liquor Bar, is the idiot savant of nightlife hotspots, according to Wadler. Staff meetings sound entertaining:

There was a problem with a host at Balthazar who was "confrontational" with customers who lied about having reservations. Mr. McNally considered hiring a "spotter" to pretend to be such a customer...

The second meeting was with the young managers of Schiller's, where the focus was on service. A waiter wasn't right and would have to be fired. The young woman manager, whose job it would be, was worried. "I've never fired anyone," she said.

"You've had a boyfriend what do you do?" Mr. McNally said.

"Wait for them to go away," the woman said.

The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown [NYT]