We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.British-born restaurateur Keith McNally was responsible for the opening of such popular New York City institutions as The Odeon, Balthazar and Pastis.But a 2016 stroke, which caused immobility and affected his speech, led him to attempt suicide two years later.He's recounted his story in the irreverent memoir "I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir" (Simon & Schuster).
Read an excerpt below, and don't miss Mo Rocca's interview with Keith McNally on "CBS Sunday Morning" July 20!"I Regret Almost Everything" by Keith McNally $27 at Amazon Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.Try Audible for free There was a time when everything worked.
... I'd been happily married and the owner of eight successful Manhattan restaurants, including Balthazar in SoHo.In 2004, the New York Times had called me "The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown." I had everything going for me.
And then on November 26, 2016, the clock stopped.I was living in London.One Saturday morning I coaxed my youngest children, George and Alice, into seeing a Caravaggio exhibition with me at the National Gallery.
George was thirteen, Alice eleven.While looking at a painting of Jesus being betrayed by Judas, The Taking of Christ, I sensed my body beginning to show signs of betraying me: a strange metallic tingling started to pinch my fingertips.
It was an odd feeling, but as it stopped after five or six seconds, I didn't give it another thought.Soon afterward, to the relief of my children, we left the museum.Two hours later, when I was back home by myself, the metallic feeling returned.
Only this time it was in earnest.Within seconds the horrific tingling shot up my left arm and, like some malignant jellyfish, clasped itself onto my face.
Terrified, I phoned Alina, who rushed back with the kids and instantly called an ...