“When the term “conspicuous consumption” joined the language during the Gilded Age, it didn’t specifically apply to food. But it certainly does at many of the new restaurants opening in Manhattan’s current gold rush.
At Le Chêne, a cozy new bistro in the West Village where you might expect to find boeuf bourguignon [1] and bouillabaisse [2], those spots are occupied by a $435 tomahawk steak and a $260 turbot fillet [3]. A lobster roll at Lex Yard, the gleaming new restaurant in the refurbished Waldorf Astoria hotel, is topped with caviar and truffles, and costs $68. At La Grande Boucherie nearby, foresighted diners can advance-order a whole roast suckling pig for the table [4], for $600.
Around the city, would-be Morgans and Mellons are indulging as never before in old-school luxuries like foie gras [5], Dover sole and seafood towers [6], as well as trendy ones like crudo [7], uni [8] and toro [8].
“Customers message us, asking what we have that night that’s extraordinary, and never ask the price,” said Alexia Duchêne, the chef at Le Chêne, who pays about $1,000 for each turbot she imports from France. Ms. Duchene said she moved to the United States partly because of the challenges of turning a profit in Europe, where high-quality ingredients are expensive but diners are frugal.
“Here, the more expensive it is, the faster it sells.”
The rich have always spent freely on food, but today’s menu prices are reaching dizzying heights. And they’re no longer confined to New York City. In Dallas and Las Vegas, Miami and Aspen, Colo., restaurants designed for the 1 percent (and the influencers who want to emulate them) now routinely offer shavings of truffles or flights of Wagyu [9].
Across the country, even restaurants with more modest ambitions and prices offer upgrades like bumps of caviar with a martini, potato chips or chicken nuggets. (That last pairing was pioneered by Cocodaq, a Korean fried chicken restaurant in the Flatiron district, which sold $100 boxes of six nuggets with Petrossian caviar at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last summer.)
“I think it’s as much about the tablescape as the gold flakes on the toro,” said Emily Sundberg, whose popular newsletter on Substack, Feed Me, chronicles the doings of New York’s young and well-heeled. “And I think a lot of people are just getting it for the photo, and it gets thrown out.”
A lot of people, of course, can’t afford fine dining at all, and that disparity mirrors what economists are calling the nation’s “K-shaped economy,” with two trend lines diverging like the arms of the letter to represent growing wealth inequality. Income and net worth have risen rapidly for affluent Americans as the stock market and tech sectors have led the post-pandemic recovery, while inflation and a stagnant job market have drastically reduced disposable income for households of lesser means.
The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics estimated this fall.
Like airlines and credit card companies, reservation services and couture brands, restaurateurs are chasing that market. The chef Dominique Crenn collaborated with LVMH this year to create menus for the Orient-Express train and the restaurant at the House of Dior in Beverly Hills. Next to the new Carbone Riviera at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Italian yacht maker Riva has docked a 33-foot craft that sails the casino’s “lake” with the restaurant’s customers aboard.
“People want to celebrate, they want to spend,” said Elizabeth Blau, a longtime restaurant developer in Las Vegas. “Why wouldn’t we bring them the organic chicken, the tomahawk steaks, the beautiful dining room?”
Some restaurateurs say these extravagances are crucial to staying afloat amid rising costs of rent, labor, ingredients and services.
“It’s the only way to make sure you turn a profit these days,” said the pastry chef Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. He and the chef Jeremiah Stone opened the influential Manhattan restaurant Contra in 2013, with an innovative multicourse tasting menu that cost $55. It closed in 2023.
After decades in which American chefs built prestige through creative expression, farm-to-table restraint and cultural authenticity, the in-demand dishes of this new Gilded Age include many of the same ones that signaled luxury during the last one, near the turn of the 20th century: lavish centerpieces like prime rib, roasted game and whole fish from faraway waters. Carbone Riviera has a tankful of whole fish on the menu: sea bream [10] ($75), turbot ($295) and branzino [11] ($325). Santi, the new Manhattan restaurant from the chef Michael White, offers a $140 rabbit “per la tavola” [12].
These large-format dishes have the advantage of being easy to share, at the table and on social media.
Nowhere in the country is the spending spree more visible than in Manhattan, where the restaurant economy is inextricable from real estate. Many of the most expensive restaurants that opened this year are anchors for glossy new office towers, like 270 Madison Avenue (which houses Santi), 425 Park Avenue (Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Four Twenty Five) and One Madison Tower (Daniel Boulud’s La Tête d’Or).
Opulent restaurants “confirm the building’s place in the luxury order of things,” said Jonathan Miller, a top Manhattan real estate appraiser.
Since the turn of the (21st) century, players in high-end real estate have competed to attract chefs who draw deep-pocketed customers. Since the pandemic, those relationships have become even more important to tenants as they aim to lure employees back to the office.
“It’s a real generational shift.,” said Marc Holliday, the chief executive of SL Green, which built One Madison Avenue, a new commercial tower in the Flatiron district where IBM, Franklin Templeton and Coinbase have their New York headquarters. “The next wave of workers have the option of working remotely, so they have to feel compelled to be in the office, with high design and fine dining.”
Mr. Boulud’s new corporate catering wing, Cuisine Boulud, provides the tenants with private dinners, deskside lunch deliveries and grab-and-go cafes. At street level is La Tête d’Or, where four ounces of top-grade Wagyu sells for $160 and the seafood towers start at $130.
Mr. Boulud, who built his reputation on French fine dining, said he had resisted opening a steakhouse until he had a kitchen that could handle everything from a blazing hot wood-fired grill for steak to mountains of ice for shellfish plateaux. “These are not inexpensive journeys to create,” Mr. Holliday said of building multiple kitchens and dining options into an office building.
Two of the city’s hottest new restaurants, the Eighty Six and the Corner Store, have menus that blend lavish dishes and mass-market hits, both at premium prices. The Eighty Six, a West Village speakeasy, serves a $110 lobster and a $165 whole roast duck, but also a cheesesteak ($39) and Danish butter cookies straight from the tin (those are free). At its sister restaurant Corner Store, a Dover sole ($89) shares space on the menu with spinach-artichoke dip ($24), pizza rolls ($20) and a French dip sandwich with a Wagyu upgrade ($39).
“Those guys did their research,” said Mr. von Hauske Valtierra, admiring the high-low approach of the Catch restaurant group, which is expanding rapidly in New York and beyond.
“If we were opening a place of our own right now it would have to be can’t-fail, no risk.”” [13]
1. Beef bourguignon is a classic French stew of beef braised in red wine (traditionally Burgundy), beef stock, and aromatics like garlic, onions, and herbs, often garnished with pearl onions and mushrooms. It's known for its rich, complex flavor and fork-tender meat, achieved through slow cooking, and is a staple of rustic French bistro cuisine, often served with potatoes, noodles, or crusty bread.
2. Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew from Marseille, France, originally made by fishermen using unsold fish, and is characterized by a rich broth flavored with saffron, fennel, and orange zest. This classic seafood dish features multiple types of fish and shellfish, and is traditionally served with crusty bread and a garlic-saffron aioli, a spicy, garlicky sauce, called rouille.
3. A turbot filet is a prized, delicate white fish known for its mild, sweet flavor and firm, flaky texture, often featured in fine dining; it's prepared by pan-searing, baking, or poaching and served simply with lemon, butter, herbs, or sauces like beurre blanc, while its strong skin and bones are used for flavorful stock. Flavor & Texture: Delicate, mild, subtly sweet, creamy, with firm, flaky white meat.
4. A whole roast suckling pig is a culinary delicacy prized for its incredibly tender, succulent meat and ultra-crispy skin. It's a celebratory dish, often the centerpiece of large gatherings, and various global culinary traditions (e.g., Spanish cochinillo, Filipino lechon, Balinese babi guling) feature unique preparation methods.
Age and Size: A suckling pig is a young pig, typically between two and six weeks old, that is still milk-fed. They usually weigh between 8 to 30 pounds.
Flavor: The meat has a delicate, mild, and distinct pork flavor. The primary goal is to achieve meat that "melts in your mouth" while rendering the skin into a light, crispy, and often blistered texture. The pig is roasted at a low temperature (around 300-350°F or 150-175°C) for several hours (typically 3-5 hours, depending on size), until an internal thermometer in the thickest part (shoulder or thigh) reaches the target temperature. The oven temperature is significantly increased (to 450-500°F or 230-260°C) for the final 30 minutes to an hour to crisp the skin. The finished pig must rest for at least 30-45 minutes before carving to allow the juices to redistribute.
5. Foie gras, French for "fat liver," is a luxury food made from the enlarged liver of a duck or goose, traditionally produced by force-feeding (gavage) them corn, resulting in a rich, buttery, and fatty delicacy often served seared, as a terrine, or in pâté form, but its production is controversial due to animal welfare concerns and is banned in some places, though it remains a pricey, highly-prized dish in French cuisine, known for its sweet, delicate flavor and smooth texture. Process (Gavage): Birds are fed large amounts of corn via a tube, causing their livers to swell significantly. Flavor: Rich, buttery, distinctively sweet, with earthy undertones. Texture: Smooth, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth, especially when seared. Common Forms & Uses: Terrine/Pâté: Chilled, pressed, and sliced. Seared: Sliced and quickly seared in a hot pan. Accoutrements: Served with sweet elements like fruit purées, fig jam, or acidic sauces to balance richness.
6. A seafood tower (or plateau de fruits de mer) is a lavish, tiered presentation of chilled, high-quality raw and cooked shellfish, served on ice with various sauces, lemon, and tools for easy cracking and eating, making it a spectacular centerpiece for entertaining or special occasions, with common items including oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab, and mussels.
Common Components
Raw: Oysters, clams (littleneck, cherrystone)
Cooked: Shrimp cocktail, lobster (split or whole), crab legs (snow, king), mussels
Garnishes: Lemon wedges, seaweed, herbs, sometimes caviar
Sauces: Cocktail sauce, mignonette (vinegar, shallots, pepper), melted butter, spicy garlic oil
Tools: Seafood picks, small forks, spoons, napkins, finger bowls
7. Crudo is an Italian term meaning "raw," referring to dishes of thinly sliced, uncooked ingredients, most commonly fish, dressed simply with olive oil, salt, and citrus. It's similar to sashimi but is typically served with more complex additions like herbs, capers, and other garnishes, and is distinct from ceviche, which "cooks" the fish in citrus juice. The key to a good crudo is using extremely fresh, high-quality ingredients, as the preparation is minimal.
Key characteristics
Meaning: "Raw" in Italian.
Main ingredient: Most often high-quality, fresh fish (like tuna, snapper, or yellowtail), but can also be meat or vegetables.
Preparation: Raw ingredients are thinly sliced and dressed, not cooked.
Dressing: Typically includes extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and acidic elements like lemon or lime juice, sometimes with vinegar.
Garnishes: Often includes herbs (cilantro, chives, mint), shallots, capers, or chili.
How it differs from similar dishes
Sashimi:
Crudo is the Italian version, while sashimi is Japanese. Crudo often has a more complex dressing than traditional sashimi.
Ceviche:
Ceviche uses citrus juice to "cook" or cure the fish, whereas crudo's acid is part of the dressing, not the primary cooking agent.
8. Uni is the Japanese name for the edible gonads of the sea urchin, a seafood delicacy prized for its creamy, buttery texture and sweet, briny flavor. It is most often served raw as sushi or sashimi, but can also be used in pasta dishes or sauces.
What it is:
Uni consists of the sea urchin's gonads, which are rich in sugars, amino acids, and salts.
Texture and flavor:
It has a rich, creamy, and delicate texture, often compared to a firm custard, with a sweet and briny taste that reflects its ocean origins.
How it's served:
Sushi/Sashimi: This is the most common way to eat it, often served as a topping on sushi rice or on its own.
Other dishes: It is also used in other types of Japanese cuisine and can be found in Italian dishes like pasta.
Quality:
The quality can vary based on color, smell, and consistency. The best uni is typically bright yellow or gold, odorless, and has a creamy, firm consistency.
8. Toro fish refers to the fatty belly meat of tuna, especially Bluefin tuna, prized in Japanese cuisine for its rich, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture and flavor, served raw as sushi or sashimi; there are different grades, like fattier Otoro and medium-fatty Chutoro, distinguished by marbling and fat content, with peak fat occurring in fall months.
9. Wagyu is prized Japanese beef known for intense intramuscular fat marbling, resulting in incredible tenderness, buttery flavor, and sweet umami taste, with A5 being the highest grade (Japan). "Wagyu" means "Japanese cow," referring to specific breeds prized for endurance and developed for rich marbling through specific diets and husbandry, offering a healthier fat profile (more unsaturated fats). It's cooked minimally to let the fat melt, creating a luxurious eating experience. From Japanese cattle breeds (Japanese Black is most common) known for endurance, now bred for quality. Special Diets: Often includes grains, beer, sake, and soy sauce. Intramuscular fat disrupts connective tissue, making it incredibly tender and almost spongy.
10. Sea bream and sea bass are not the same fish; they are different species with distinct flavors and textures, though both are popular white fish in Mediterranean cuisine. Sea bream (like Gilthead Bream) is typically firmer, has a sweeter, slightly nutty taste, and a meatier, flakier texture, while sea bass is more delicate, buttery, and tender.
11. Branzino (plural: branzini) is the Italian name for the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a popular white fish in Mediterranean cuisine. It is prized for its delicate, mild, slightly sweet flavor and light, flaky flesh.
12. "Rabbit 'per la tavola'" (for the table) refers to an Italian-style rabbit dish, often slow-cooked or braised with wine, herbs, and vegetables like carrots, celery, and sometimes artichokes or fava beans, served communally or as a main course, appearing on menus as a rustic yet refined option, as seen in restaurant examples like a pricey $140 rabbit dish at Santi restaurant or rustic recipes with polenta and ragù.
13. A $600 Suckling Pig? Wagyu for All? On Menus, It’s a New Gilded Age. Moskin, Julia. New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Dec 18, 2025.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą