May 2013
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For The World's 50 Best Restaurants, "There’s no... →
Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon comes to that conclusion (among others) as part of his fine analysis of San Pellegrino’s annual list of the “World’s 50 Best Restaurants,” an analysis that involves graphing menu prices against relative placement on the list.
Salmon’s assertion, however, depends on the following tacit assumption: that the quality of food and...
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Marea's Menu Used to Be $97. Now It's $99. →
Not really a biggie, but for those who keep track of such minutae, considered your yourselves au courant. The REAL COST of a four-course meal at Marea, after tax and tip, but before wine, is now $255 for two, or $510 for four. That said, we’ve always believed the best way to experience this two-Michelin-starred spot is by sitting at the bar and going a la carte: share a few crudi, a few...
April 2013
19 posts
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Say It Loud: Food Costs What the Market Requires...
baddeal:
This week I review Carbone in my Blooomberg column, awarding 3.5 stars to the high-end red sauce joint in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. It isn’t just one of our city’s best new restaurants, it’s one of Manhattan’s best seafood spots, period.
Carbone’s cuisine is the cuisine I ate while growing up on Long Island, at cheap seafood shacks and affordable Italian-American...
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Skenes tells The Bad Deal that Saison should... →
Saison’s set dinner menu is currently $298 per person, up from $198 around this time last year. Wine, tax and tip are extra. Is it worth it? Skenes gives us some thoughtful insights in the question of value over at The Bad Deal.
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Tomorrow, The Red Sox Play The Royals at Home in... →
If you live in Boston, or heck, if you live anywhere in the Northeastern United States, that will be the baseball game of the week. We’re calling this one a STRONG BUY. Expect ticket prices to rise between now and game time. We can think of no better way to celebrate the city of Boston than by going to a ballgame.
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Aldea Ends `Prix Fixe-Only' Experiment.
Shortly after Valentine’s Day, The Price Hike reported that Aldea, Manhattan’s only Michelin-starred Iberian restaurant, was switching to prix-fixe-only during the weekends, at $75 for three courses, or $95 for six-courses. Chef George Mendes also said that eliminating the a la carte menu during the week was in the cards.
Today, Mendes informed us that Aldea has reversed course,...
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Actual Phone Conversation From Last Week
RECEPTIONIST: Thank you for calling [redacted] how may I assist you?
SUTTON: Good afternoon, would you be so kind as to let me know what the price might be for the wine pairing on the extended tasting menu offered on Fridays and Saturdays?
RECEPTIONIST: Is this Ryan Sutton?
SUTTON: That's pretty good voice recognition.
RECEPTIONIST: Nah, it's just that you're the only person who would ask a question like that.
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Trois Mec in Hollywood will charge $97.13 for... →
Alinea’s ticketing system is moving out West, the Los Angeles Times reports. The $100 price tag gets you five courses, inclusive of tax and tip. Drinks are extra. BUY HOLD OR SELL?
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Tumblr Shuts Down Storyboard 'For Now,' Says... →
baddeal:
We’re sad to hear this news, as Storyboard was a brilliant experiment in journalism and we hope it returns soon. It’s part of what separated Tumblr from the rest of the social media and blogging community; Storyboard was curated and it was editorial. It was a coherent and human voice that Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter all lacked and still lack.
Storyboard was an effort to give a...
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Expensive Things Explained. . .Iberico Edition
Seamus Mullen’s Tertulia, which I named 2011’s best new restaurant for Bloomberg New, is where New Yorkers go to sate their expensive addictions to Jamon Iberico. With spider-like marbling and nutty, floral aromas, it is the Kobe beef of ham.
Tertulia’s Iberico used to cost $25. Now it starts at $36. I shot Mullen a quick email asking him to explain the increase, and he took 1,168 words...
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"The gelatinous seaweed served at New York’s... →
All for $120 per person, or $250 with white whiskey pairings. Shout out to Tejal Rao for this brilliant April 1st review, which she titles “12 Things I hate about ‘13.” And while the restaurant is a SELL, Ms. Rao is most definitely a BUY.
March 2013
21 posts
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PRICE HIKE POLL: Would You Be Willing to Spend... →
Starting next year, New York City businesses with 15 or more employees will be required to give their workers 5 days of paid sick leave. Like any government regulation that imposes a cost on small businesses, that cost will likely be passed onto the consumer.
William Tiggert of Freemans & Peels says the bill could increase payroll costs by 4%, and so it’s not improbable to suggest that menu...
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Here's how you can spend $850 for two at Atelier...
Dominique Crenn, whose Atelier Crenn is the only woman-run two Michelin-starred restaurant in America, has increased the price of her tasting menu to $180, a $20 hike. That’s the same price as the tasting menu (of about the same length, 16-18 courses) at Corey Lee’s Benu.
Crenn, when asked about the increase via email, wrote that “we use at times ingredients that are quite...
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Here's a List of NYC Tasting Menus Prepared by... →
Vermilion (don’t eat here): $110
Annisa: (Michelin-starred): $78-$98
Pig & Khao (good food): $39.
City Grit (a cool rotating popup): prices will vary.
No, serving a three-hour, twenty-course menu generally isn’t part of the gender equality argument. But if male restaurateurs in New York are charging hundreds if not thousands of dollars for these long tastings, and if...
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Brooklyn's Prime Meats now charges more than... →
Minetta Tavern = $140. Prime Meats = $142. The Frankies don’t pay their meat suppliers any less just because they’re located in Brooklyn, so you as a customer shouldn’t really pay any less either. Prime Meats also takes Amex again. We dig it.
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Here Are the Entry-Level Champagne Prices at New...
Gaonnuri: $165 (Veuve Clicquot)
Gaonnuri: $160 (Moet Chandon)
Per Se: $135 (Pol Roger)
Brooklyn Fare: $115 (Maire-Noelle)*
Craft: $105 (Saint-Chamant)
Masa: $95 (La Caravelle)
Marea: $93 (La Caravelle)
Eleven Madison Park: $90 (Pierre Gimonnet)
Del Posto: $90 (Doyard or La Caravelle)
Daniel: $85 (Pierre Brigandat & Fils)
Corton: $80 (Duc de Romet)
Easy question: Would you prefer to...
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Would You Rather Spend $2,000 on a Tasting Menu in...
baddeal:
So Claus Meyer owns two restaurants. One is Noma in Copenhagen, which will cost you about $437. The other is Gustu in La Paz, Bolivia, where the wine-paired tasting will run you about $130. Sounds cheaper, right? Not quite. After airfare, hotels, visas and yellow fever shots, you’ll actually spend a few dollars less in Copenhagen if you’re flying from New York. Check out...
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“Single supplement. These two words strike dread — not to mention resentment — in...”
– Stephanie Rosenbloom pens a fun little piece for the New York Times about how singles are charged more on cruise ships, as most accommodations are priced for double occupancy.
But here’s a different way of looking at things. If you’re taking your significant other on a cruise,...
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WD-50 Used to Be an Exciting Restaurant.
Sometimes, you gotta show a restaurant you love some tough love. Such is the case of WD-50, a restaurant that I’ve been visiting since 2005, and which I downgraded to two stars in my Bloomberg News review this week. Last spring, the Dufresne’s restaurant eliminated its a la carte options in favor of a tasting menu-only format in the dining room.
Pricing isn’t necessarily the...
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Red Hook Lobster Pound was destroyed by Sandy.... →
As I wrote in my Bloomberg News review, Red Hook serves the city’s best lobster rolls, period. They cost $16 before Sandy. And now after all the Hurricane-related repairs, they still cost $16, per a receptionist. Keep in mind that’s half the price of an inferior $32 roll at Mary’s Fish Camp in Manhattan.
So come to Red Hook instead. We’re calling this one a STRONG BUY.
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February 2013
23 posts
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Sichuan Chicken: Price, Quality, Nightclubbery
The General: $21
Szechuan Gourmet: “about $20,” says receptionist.
Grand Sichuan Eastern: $17
Legend: $17
Cafe China: $15
Lan Sheng: $14
Mission Chinese: $11
Smart diners know there’s no correlation between price and quality, but here’s something interesting: There’s a new “nightclub restaurant” on The Bowery. It’s called The General. It was...
