Cellar Rat: A Sommelier's Restaurant Confidential
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio
Milk Street Radio
4.2 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former restaurant server and sommelier Hannah Selinger shares stories from her tell-all memoir, Cellar Rat, featuring run-ins with critics, strategies for spotting bad tippers, what she considers the stuffiest restaurant in New York, and how she thinks the industry may one day reform. Plus, Özlem Warren gives us the true taste of Istanbul and Kim Severson explains why America is breaking up with the calorie.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey Christopher Kimball here. We have an interview coming out soon about restaurant gap relationships, |
| 0:05.5 | and we want to hear your stories. Do you spend all your time scrolling through reservation apps |
| 0:10.7 | while your partner couldn't care less? Or maybe you dump your date for being a picky eater, |
| 0:16.0 | or maybe one of you loves to eat out and the other doesn't. So to share your story, please leave us a voicemail. |
| 0:21.9 | The number 617-249-3167. One more time, 617-249-31-67, or send us a voice memo to Radio Tips at |
| 0:34.8 | 175 Milkstreet.com. |
| 0:41.3 | This is Milk Street Radio from PRX, and I'm your host, Christopher Kimball. |
| 0:47.3 | For over a decade, Hannah Sellinger was a server in Somalié in New York's finest restaurants. |
| 0:53.2 | Today, she tells all, like the time-vogue food critic, Jeffrey Steingarten, quist her about ice cream. |
| 0:59.2 | He kept asking me question after question. |
| 1:02.7 | She also shares of a good tipper versus a bad one. |
| 1:06.2 | Sometimes people are what we call verbal tippers. |
| 1:09.2 | You've been so amazing. |
| 1:12.5 | Oh my God, we're going to request you every time. 10%. 10%. And she reveals the stuffiest restaurant in New York. You were meant to be |
| 1:20.6 | quiet both in the dining room, like as a diner and also in the dining room as a server. |
| 1:26.1 | Hannah Sellinger's restaurant confidential that's coming up later in the show. |
| 1:31.0 | But first, we traveled to Istanbul with Turkish chef and cookbook author, Oslum Warren. |
| 1:37.2 | Osloom, it's so great to have you back on Mill Street. |
| 1:40.3 | It's so lovely to be back, Chris. |
| 1:42.5 | Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:44.4 | I think since I last spoke to you, I went to Istanbul, as you know. |
| 1:48.3 | Yes. |
... |
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