It’s the revenge of “Ratatouille!”
After outspoken restauranteur Keith McNally took aim from left field at Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez — calling her “revolting” — a video surfaced online of a rat running around patrons’ feet at the bar at his famed Soho eatery Balthazar.
In a clip posted to Instagram by NYC socialite Michelle Manning Barish, a rodent is seen running wild beneath the Balthazar bar.
She captioned the pic: “Rats found in Balthazar NYC in the dining room tonight… can’t imagine what the kitchen is like. Absolutely ‘REVOLTING.’ Like a scene from ‘Ratatouille.'”
However, when we reached out to McNally for comment, he claimed the rascally rodent was a set up!
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McNally exclusively told Page Six when reached about the “rat” video, “A suspicious man of about 40 came andsat nervously at Balthazar’s bar last night around 8:30… After paying for one drink he suddenly left very quickly, leaving an upturned bag which five white domesticated mice ran out from.”
He also alleged that, “One of the bartenders who noticed the whole episode ran after the man, but failed to catch him. The five white mice were quickly caught.”
Making the matter more mysterious, the critter caught on camera in Barish’s video was not white.
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The clip showed a brownrodent running around the resto as waiters in white are seen in a tizzy trying to capture the critter as diners squeal and laugh.
We’ve tried to reach out to Barish for comment.
McNally alleged: “A woman called Michelle Manning Barish seemed to have knowledgethat the incident was about to happen because she was standing suspiciouslyclose to where the incident happened with her iPhone ready to take photos… She immediately posted one of the photos on Instagram and DM’d me a photo of a white mouse.”
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Sounds like a case for Eric Adam’s newly appointed rat czar?
While rodents in NYC restaurants may not be anything new, Page Six was sent the Instagram post by a number of women who were highly ticked off about McNally slamming Sanchez.
After McNally’s post about Sanchez, many rushed to Sánchez’s defense online, including Chrissy Teigen and “The View” host Ana Navarro. The singer Jewel weighed in on Barish’s post by commenting, “Karma for bullying,” while fashion designer Stacey Bendet commented, “This is #karma.”
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“Rats at Balthazar,” one source texted us, adding that saying McNally continues to “prove he is total trash!”
On Monday, McNally posted the Sánchez diss on social media seemingly out of nowhere, with pics of the billionaire couple at various glam events.
(After the backlash, he updated the post to say simply, “What a Bizarre-looking couple. Is this what having 1000 Billion dollars does to people?”)
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It’s unclear when the rodent video was shot, but sources claimed it was on Thursday night.
Barish is also known for having dated Salman Rushdie and Steve Tisch, as well as former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — whom she accused of domestic abuse in 2018 along with a number of other women in a bombshell New Yorker piece, leading to his eventual resignation.
Sánchez posted her response to McNally, 72, on Instagram with a passage saying, “People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you.”
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Sánchez, 54, also shared a quote from fashion designer Rachel Zoe that read, “Lead with kindness, cheer for those you love. Just honestly wish everyone the best.”
McNally, who suffered a stroke in 2017, is no stranger to provoking the public with outrageous comments on social media.
In 2021, a young fashion buyer posted a picture of herself in Soho wearing a leather trench, Chanel bag, and leather boots, and McNally oddly chimed in,“There’s something about this photo that resembles a hooker waiting for business.”
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The woman who has just over 3,000 followers, told Page Six at the time, “I have never met this man or spoken to him. I don’t know him.”
“I was just baffled,” she said, adding she felt“very disrespected.”
The foodie has also spoken out in defense of Woody Allen, said Jeffrey Epstein’s right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent, taken aim at James Corden and other famous customers and created a firestorm after weighing in on the October 7th terror attacks on Israel.
