T he New York Times once called Keith McNally the “Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown”—but the Balthazar founder is so much more than that. And he detests the word “restaurateur.” McNally got his start in 1975 bussing tables in Manhattan at Serendipity and shucking oysters at One Fifth. Five years later, he founded The Odeon, the first of his iconic collection of restaurants that defined the downtown scene. He’s also a director whose debut thriller premiered at Cannes in 1990, a former West End