i'm ryan sutton, the new york food critic for bloomberg news.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Bad Deal Rule No. 854: The More Price Points (Or Special Offers) a Restaurant Has, The More Confusing Things Become For Guests.
SHO used to be simple. At dinner, the two Michelin-starred restaurant would charge $85 for four courses, or $100 for five courses. Lunch was $27 or $33. But now that the restaurant is closing, SHO is throwing around more deals and a la carte menus than anyone can count. Eater.com breaks it all down, or read over the SHO newsletter yourself and see how fast your brains melt.
Bad Deal Rule No. 493: Deals Advertising Kardashian Sightings Shouldn’t Be Combined With Tasting Menus Because, Really.
As first reported by Eater.com, Gilt City is offering a $125 seven-course tasting dinner for two at RYU, a “sleek new hotspot in the Meatpacking District” that serves “delicious Japanese cuisine — and sometimes a Kardashian sighting.” The owner, Scott Disick, is Kourtney Kardashian’s man friend. Sigh. If you tip on the full $230 value of the deal as Gilt City recommends, you’ll spend $182.
Most level-headed diners will realize it’s unwise to order an elegant tasting menu at a Kardashian-clad restaurant. But if you’re not buying our ad hominem argument, take a nice look at Steve Cuozzo’s zero-star review of RYU in today’s New York Post. Still that’s subjective as well. And we’re big on data here…
Here Are Six Reasons Why The Dutch’s $150 Champagne Dinner Is a GOOD DEAL
Alright Bad Dealers. Time to break out your No.2 pencils and pay close attention. This Gilt City offer for The Dutch in Miami is pretty much your paradigm for a GOOD DEAL. In fact, there are six distinct reasons why Andrew Carmellini’s restaurant gets it right:
- Simple, transparent pricing. The $150 entry fee gets you dinner and drinks, with tax and tip included. No tricks here.
- You’re getting dishes that aren’t on the regular menu, so there’s an exclusivity factor — many deal sites get chefs to repackage their a la carte menus as tasting menus, which is no more elegant than a buy-one get-one-free offer from your local supermarket.
- You get a “caviar pie” with good sturgeon roe (along with paddlefish roe, so be it), as confirmed by a phone call to The Dutch.
- Typically, it’s a giant red flag when restaurants that don’t normally offer tasting menus start selling one-time-only tastings through deal sites. Longer menus require intricate pacing, and it’s a skill developed over time. But Chef Andrew Carmellini used to work in fine dining at Cafe Boulud, so this guy knows how to course out a composed meal.
- It’s not a one-time-only affair. You get to choose from a few dates.
- You get truffles, cocktails and three champagnes.
I can actually see a future where consumers are so addicted to deals that every price on a restaurant menu will be crossed off Wal-Mart style and then there will be an alternate, cheaper price next to it, to show how much you’re ‘saving.’ Right now, Yipit.com, a rapidly growing New York startup, makes me think of that bleak future.
Another quote in a series of highlights from Ryan Sutton’s Eater.com interview with Ryan Sutton. Full disclosure: This Bad Deal post was also authored by Ryan Sutton. (Source: Eater.com)
