Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

Posted on by Live & Learn

Humphreys was a shingle building with a handwritten sign above its entrance—HUMPHREY’S BAKED GOODS & SANDWICHES. Even before I opened its screen door, the unmistakable smell of bread baking wafted outside. Is there any better smell on earth?

— Keith McNally, I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir (Gallery Books, May 6, 2025)

Notes:

  • NY Times Book Review: The Brash, Working-Class Londoner Who Redefined New York’s Restaurants
  • Wall Street Journal book excerpt: Keith McNally: “I Had No Chef, No Toilets and No Budget. But I Was Determined to Open Balthazar.”

30 thoughts on “Monday Morning Wake-Up Call”

  1. Before silvercup became a film studio, it was a bread bakery and the smell transcended every other smell as you drove off the 59th st bridge..a delicious olfactory memory

    1. Do you have ties to New York City Mimi? Both of my parents grew up in Brooklyn, but decided they would prefer to raise their family (3 boys, I’m the youngest) in Vermont. I visited Brooklyn several times during my early childhood, to see my paternal grandmother.

      1. Hi Paul – yes, I lived in Jackson Heights through college. Parents then moved to Rye, NY and ultimately lived in NJ (closer to my sister in case mom needed anything…Probably a longer answer than you needed!

        1. Dear Mimi… Absolutely not too much info. I love hearing from you! My maternal grandparents (and hence my mother) spent summers in Vermont. That’s how I ended up here. My paternal GREAT grandparents owned a piece of property way out on Long Island in a town called Mattituck. That was where my father spent summers. That was back when Long Island was rural and full of potato fields 🙂

        2. It’s a small world, Mimi… I did not know until I looked it up that Jackson Heights was in Queens. I used to have cousins there (born around 1900 who fled nazi Germany)… I met them several times… Lovely people… Good memories.

    2. Hi Mimi. I’m 70% through. I love the book. I esp appreciate his honesty, humility and his self-deprecating style… Yes, I would recommend it, esp for those with time in NY.

  2. Dave… To me the smell of bread baking is definitely near the top of my list of favorite things. I read the beginning of the New York Times book review… This book looks fantastic. Have you finished it? Recommended?

    1. I’m 70% of the way through Paul. And I do love this book. Just shared with Mimi, for all his success, I appreciate his humility and his honesty.

      1. Appreciate the feedback, Dave! I am an audible fanatic, and I’m checking to see if they have this book. I have been desperately looking for a good book to read that is different from my typical choices (which I am sick of! LOL) Happy Monday to you, sir! I think the snow is finally gone in the great white north, and I hope not to be here next winter… I’ve had enough… But not sure what the future holds. (perhaps a good thing!) Summers in Vermont? Probably. I may have to become a dreaded “snowbird”.

          1. “Sounds” is the key word in your comment. Vermont is stunningly beautiful on a nice day. What people do not talk about is that winter is six months long, and even during the warmer months we have far more clouds and rain than people realize.

            I’m not complaining.
            No regrets that I was fortunate enough to be born here. But it is not what most people envision when they think of Vermont. And you better find some winter activities that you enjoy! 🙂

    2. For all his success, this about captures the spirit – of the book – but he is a good person and he lays out all his doubts and shortcomings in black and white. Inspiring, really.

      McNally opens his memoir with a quote from George Orwell: “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.”

  9. bread baking, johnson & johnson’s baby shampoo, summer tomato vines … doesn’t get any better! <3

  10. The daughter of dairyfarmers, a little baker’s van used to do the rounds of the farms a couple of times a week. The little doors opened and the smell of warm fresh bread wafted on the air. Sometimes we used to get a ride to school in that bakers van. Now in my 8th decade it’s a vivid treasured memory. Bliss!

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