THE BAD DEAL

Groupon shows you a photo of steak. Then Groupon sells you steak knives. But Groupon doesn’t give you any steak. Instead, Groupon packages those steak knives with food you’re supposed to eat with your hands: hamburgers, sausages, and hot dogs. BAD GROUPON. 

STK is a restaurant whose website features a woman stepping on a steak with her stilettos. The West Hollywood location is offering a deal through Gilt City, presumably because rational people avoid joints where steaks are portrayed as being placed on the floor and stepped on. The deal is two cocktails, a chopped salad, “lil burgers,” a porterhouse for two and a platter of desserts. When we added up the a la carte prices, it worked out to around $179. Why is this a BAD DEAL? Let’s look at this from a perspective of TRADEOFF and RISK versus REWARD.

• RISK: $150
• TRADEOFFS: Non-refundable, have to pay in advance, can’t use deal on Fridays or Saturdays, you give up any ability to choose what you want for dinner, you might be full after entrees in which case you’ve squandered the value of your deal, oh and you have to use the deal by August 31st or you could be SOL. 
• REWARD: 1.8 cocktails (drinks are $16; you’re saving about $29).   

So you’re risking the loss of $150 in return for 1.8 cocktails, or $29 worth of food. Sound like a good bet? DIDN’T THINK SO. To be fair: The regular menu only serves a 24 ounce porterhouse for $64. The Extra eight ounces are “exclusive” to Gilt. I calculated the price of the larger cut of meat at $85, based on the de facto per-ounce charge of $2.70 for the regular size. UPDATE: This deal is sold out.