i'm ryan sutton, the new york food critic for bloomberg news.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
UrbanDaddy, the DirtyDaddy of deal sites, is charging $175 for a four-course meal of corn, clams, pork and chocolate at Mario Batali’s Eataly. They toss in four beers as well. It’s a one-night-only event that includes tax & tip. Sure, an Eataly chef teaches you how to make these dishes. BUT REALLY. We think you and your date can teach yourselves how to steam clams and toss salad for less than $350. It ain’t that hard.
Here are some BETTER BATALI deals: For $75 bucks, you can do the 7-course tasting at Esca, which serves some of Manhattan’s best seafood. Add on the formal wine pairing at you’re at $161 after tax & tip. Or you could do Babbo’s eight-course tasting for $75. Or you could order Del Posto’s five-courser for $115. None of those menus are one-night-only jobs where you lose your $$$ if you don’t show up. None of those menus mandate beverage pairings. And all of those menus have stood the test of time. So go get yourself a real Batali meal. And skip out on this DirtyDaddy offer. It’s a BAD DEAL.
Would You Pay $250 for Tickets to Unopened Restaurant?
Would you spend $250 on meal tickets, valid for 8pm only, for one night only, for a wine-paired tasting menu only, at a restaurant that has not yet opened to the public, and which has not yet published its regular prices?
UrbanDaddy, the DirtyDaddy of Bad Deals, thinks you’ll go for it. Such is the offer for Mas La Grillade in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The deal, which includes wine, tax and tip, is $125 per person; presumably you’ll bring a date, hiking your cost to $250 — a very fair price. From a strict culinary standpoint, is this a Bad Deal? Of course not; we’re excited about Galen Zamarra’s long awaited sequel to Mas Farmhouse (where set menus run $64 per person). So here’s what we don’t like:
DirtyDaddy Wants You Wasted Before Sunset
UrbanDaddy, the DirtyDaddy of deals, is offering unlimited tacos & margaritas at Agave, a West Village Mexican joint that you’ve always walked by but never into. Let’s keep it that way. The coupon costs $30 — not a whole lot of money. So why’s this a BAD DEAL? As always, let’s turn to the Dirty fine print:
- “Offer is valid Mon-Fri for any two hours BETWEEN 4pm and 8pm.”
That means the deal is over no later than 8pm, at which time you turn into a pumpkin a useless sack of alcoholic stupor. That’s another way of saying unless you’re 350 pounds, and unless you typically fall asleep at 9pm, consuming UNLIMITED margaritas and UNLIMITED Tex-Mex fare will totally kill the rest of your DirtyDaddy night. The Bad Deal is a fan of happy hour. But we’re gonna go ahead and say drinking as much as humanly possible before 8pm is probably a bad idea. In fact, we think unlimited alcohol in general is just plain dumb. But let’s take this one step at a time.
Our Advice: Walk around the corner with your buddy and hit up Alex Stupak & Lauren Resler’s Empellon. Share the life-changing lamb barbacoa tacos ($21), and mind-boggling beer-braised tongue tacos ($18). Order two cocktails each and you’re out $46 bucks apiece. Sure you’re spending more, but we at The Bad Deal believe GOOD FOOD is worth MORE MONEY. It’s a radical concept. So let the college kids go get bombed at Agave while you chill out at Empellon.
