I Regret Almost Everything
by Keith McNally
Mentioned once across 1 show · first heard Aug 2025 on All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg.
The general take
Jason Calacanis recommends Keith McNally's memoir "I Regret Almost Everything" as one of his summer bios, highlighting McNally's successful restaurant empire including iconic spots like Balthazar and Pastis, plus his candid Instagram presence and experience recovering from a stroke.
About
New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2026 Gotham Book Prize 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 in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell’s. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights from traveling overland to Kathmandu at nineteen, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety.
Who said what
Jason Calacanis👍 Recommends
…summer reading recommendations featuring keith mcnally memoir about running iconic restaurants
“Finally, my fourth pick for Bios of the Summer, I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally, who is the restaurateur. He had a stroke. He has an Instagram where he's like pretty spicy. And he did Balthazar, Pastis, Odeon, all these incredibly iconic places.”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg — OpenAI's GPT-5 Flop, AI's Unlimited Market, China's Big Advantage, Rise in Socialism, Housing Crisisat 47:56
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