Restaurateur Recalls Donald Trump Being a ‘Pushy New Yorker with Diabolical Taste’ During Real Estate Meeting Years Ago (Exclusive)

• Keith McNally’s memoir I Regret Almost Everything shares anecdotes throughout his life in the NYC social scene, including an encounter with Donald Trump at a real estate meeting years ago
• Donald Trump once offered McNally a restaurant space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side despite having “guaranteed” it to someone else a month prior
• McNally tells PEOPLE that Trump “wasn’t offensive” but also wasn’t “too bright” in recalling their meeting

Keith McNally is recalling his most infamous run-ins with the who’s-who of New York City in his new memoir, I Regret Almost Everything.

While the restaurateur spills anecdotes and quirky stories about celebrities from all walks of life — like the time he infamously banned James Corden from his restaurant Balthazar after alleging the actor was “abusive” towards his staff — one particular walk down memory lane involves McNally trying to buy real estate from now-President Donald Trump.

“Even though I missed meeting Henry VIII by four hundred years, I did meet his modern-day equivalent, Donald Trump,” McNally pens in his novel, telling readers that Trump had invited him to come look at restaurant space to rent in a building he owned on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “Walking through a series of overdecorated spaces, we passed one that was noticeably less gaudy than the others. I asked the Don if that restaurant space was also for rent. ‘No, that one’s taken. I guaranteed it to someone else a month ago.’”

McNally added slyly, “There was a pause before Trump added with a smile: ‘But just because it’s guaranteed doesn’t mean it’s locked in.’”

The restaurateur ultimately did not end up renting the space. 

McNally told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that Trump was a regular at his NYC hotspot, Balthazar, for two years after its 1997 opening.

“Even then he seemed like a caricature of a rich, pushy New Yorker with diabolical taste.  But he wasn’t offensive. In fact, he was very decent to me,” McNally said. “All the same, he wasn’t too bright and if someone had told me that one day he’d be President I’d have thought they were certifiable.”

Though I Regret Almost Everything will offer readers a glimpse into the glamorous and at times devastating life of McNally and his portfolio of New York City dining destinations, the restaurateur tells PEOPLE he hopes that readers will come away with a more introspective view of life as a whole after reading through his own story. 

“If [people] discover anything at all from reading my book, I hope it’s the idea that it’s okay to change your mind, and that not every question has a right and wrong answer.  That it’s okay to dislike all the things we’re taught are sacrosanct,” McNally said. “Like getting on with your siblings and parents. Like thinking that all vacations are great. Like believing that crap that your child being born is the greatest event of your life. And to try as hard as possible to contradict your own opinion.”

I Regret Almost Everything is out Tuesday, May 6 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.