Keith McNally is a restaurateur

Restaurateur

A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.-Etymology:The word...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The New York Times has referred to him as "The Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown." McNally has been active in the New York City restaurant scene for 30 years. In that time, he has opened these restaurants: Odeon (in Tribeca

TriBeCa

Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...

), Cafe Luxembourg (Upper West Side

Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

), Lucky Strike, Nell's, Pravda (SoHo), Balthazar (SoHo), Pastis (Meatpacking District), Schiller's (Lower East Side

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

), Morandi (West Village), Minetta Tavern (West Village), and Pulino's (Lower East Side).

Sam Sifton

Sam Sifton

Sam Sifton is an American journalist working for the New York Times. Sifton's posts at the Times have included deputy dining editor ; dining editor ; deputy culture editor and culture editor .....

, food critic for the New York Times awarded one star to Pulino's shortly after it opened in 2010. The chef at Pulino's is Nate Appleman. Sifton's predecessor, Frank Bruni

Frank Bruni

Frank Anthony Bruni is an American journalist. He was the chief restaurant critic of The New York Times, a position he held from 2004 to 2009. In May 2011, he became the first openly gay Op-Ed columnist of The New York Times....

, awarded three stars to Minetta Tavern in 2009.

McNally was born into a working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 family in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. His brother Brian McNally is also a restaurateur in New York.