James Corden has reversed his vow to "never complain, never explain," and on The Late Late Show on Monday, October 25, he addressed the drama surrounding his ban from NYC restaurant Balthazar for allegedly being rude to servers.
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"Last week, there were stories about me being banned from a restaurant. And at the time I considered, you know, tweeting about it or Instagramming about it," the 44-year-old explained at the top of the show.
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"Whenever these moments come my way, I like to adopt quite a British attitude of 'Keep calm and carry on.'" But he said that his father—who was sitting in the audience with James' mother — told him over the weekend, "Son, well, you did complain, so you might need to explain."
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James admitted that "when you make a mistake, you've got to take responsibility" and told the audience that earlier this month, while he was dining with friends at the trendy downtown eatery — one of his "absolute favorite restaurants" — his wife, Julia Carey, was served food that "she was allergic to," despite explaining her serious sensitivities to their server.
Days before his Late Late Show speech, James told The New York Times he had not "done anything wrong on any level."
When the food — an egg yolk omelet — was remade and delivered to their table with home fries instead of a salad, James said that he "made a sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself."
"It is a comment I deeply regret," he continued. "I understand the difficulties of being a server. I worked shifts at restaurants for years."
After the manager and server brought out champagne "as an apology," the talk show host thought everything had been resolved. But on October 17, the restaurant's owner Keith McNally posted on Instagram about the incident and an earlier one involving James and said that the star was banned from the establishment.
"Because I didn't shout or scream, I didn't get up out of my seat, I didn't call anyone names or use derogatory language, I've been walking around thinking that I hadn't done anything wrong, right? But the truth is, I made a rude comment, and it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment. It was ungracious to the server," he said.
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James said that after Keith's post went viral, he "immediately" called the restaurateur and told him "how upset I was."
"We had a good talk," the Peter Rabbit 2 actor said. "He appreciated the call. I was happy that we got to clear the air, and I felt like we dealt with it privately, you know? But by this point, the story was out there, and people were upset."
After sharing some funny social media posts that slammed him, James told the audience that he understood why people were upset.
"As I said to the owner that day, that [if] I've ever upset anybody, ever, it was never my intention. It just wasn't. And I love that restaurant. I love the staff there. I hope I'm allowed in again one day," James added. "So when I'm back in New York, I can go there and apologize in person, which is something I will absolutely do."
For the record, Keith scrapped his ban after James' phone call and said he is welcome back at Balthazar any time.
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