Now that fewer people are eating out, some New York City restaurants seem to be adopting the fee-happy policies of your least favorite airlines. The New York Post reports that a few upscale joints have been sneaking formerly included items like bread and butter onto the bill to squeeze their remaining patrons of a few more dollars, like a 10 percent delivery charge at Nobu in Tribeca and a $2.50 supplement for cocktails made with ice at Morton's steakhouse. ]]>
We've been having fun watching fancy restaurants do everything they can to convince diners to keep eating out through the recession, and as much as we like $20 prix fixes and permanent Restaurant Week deals, this is what we've really been waiting for: prices measured in cents, not dollars.
Yep, Boston's Masa is the first high-end eatery we've seen offer a recession-friendly menu that drops the dollar sign. The chic South End restaurant, where chef Philip Aviles serves an inventive array of Southwestern tapas, constantly shows up on Boston "best-of" lists, and boasts a pricey menu to match. But stop by Masa on a weekday evening and if you're willing to sit in the bar area, you can down any of their tapas—like beer battered achiote shrimp, smoked jalapeno arepas and ahi tuna tartare—for 50 cents a pop. 50 cents! You can't even get a pack of gum that cheap anymore.
If you're feeling a little fancier, Masa is also offering their restaurant week menu for the entire month of March. At $33.09 for three full courses, it's a pretty fair deal as well, but we'll still be the ones counting quarters by the bar.
Related Stories:
· Masa Restaurant [Official Site]
· For Boston Foodies, A Deal Whenever it Snows [81]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Oscalito] ]]>
When you want a recession-friendly meal, you probably don't head directly to a museum. No, museum food just makes us think of $13 nicoise salads and the like.
But the Hollis Hip-Hop Museum is neither your typical museum or your average eatery. OK, museum is a bit of a stretch, seeing as how it is located entirely inside the Hollis Famous Burgers restaurant in Queens. While it might not supplant MoMA or the Met as New York's cultural epicenter anytime soon, it does have hundreds of items of hip-hop memorabilia, with a special emphasis on native sons of Queens, including a tribute to RUN-DMC's Jam Master Jay, who lived five blocks from the museum before he was shot and killed in 2002.
The museum has enough street cred that Darryl McDaniel (the DMC of RUN-DMC) turned out for its grand opening last week. And we like the pricing: $1 burgers and free admission. Beat that, MoMA!
Related Stories:
· Putting Together a Hamburger, a Neighborhood and Hip-Hop [NYTimes]
· Museums Travel Coverage [81]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [NYTimes] ]]>
As far as gourmet dining goes, we're liking the recession menus, we're loving the pay-what-you-can pricing, but this is what we've really been waiting for: Free food.
As a rule, gourmet food is among the only things that are never, ever free, but that maxim could be changing. New York's 81 is the first high-end restaurant we've seen try to lure in recession-addled customers by giving away the good stuff for free. ]]>
Finally, the US exports a food trend that doesn't suck.
Just about every high-end French resto in the States now has a "recession menu" or "permanent restaurant week" that aims to make foodie-friendly eats accessible to the poors and newly-poors.
As the financial crisis spreads far and wide, we're now seeing the idea of high-end recession menus show up further and further around the globe. Exhibit One is Auberge Micael, one of South Africa's only five-star restaurants. Set in Johannesburg's tony Sandtown neighborhood, this swank French resto is one of the country's best-reviewed eateries and a must-stop for any dedicated foodie passing through Jo'burg. ]]>
Philadelphia foodies may have been sad to see high-end bistro Matyson absent from the town's recent Restaurant Week list, but fear not, even classy standbys like this aren't above stooping to recession menus to reel customers in.
Actually, Matyson is offering one of the funniest recession-themed menus we've seen yet. At first glance you'd think they'd fallen to boring, cheap-ingredient soup kitchen meals, but look closer and you'll see the "spaghetti and meatballs" is spaghetti squash with beef and mushroom meatballs served in a parmesan froth, and the "tuna salad" is confit tuna topped with crispy olives and blood orange vinaigrette. They just can't help being fancy!
At $35, the four-course feast is a deal at this normally $25-an-entrée eatery, plus it's a BYOB, so you can even afford a (cheap) bottle of wine.
· Matyson [Official Site]
· Rouge Drops a Course, Wins Our Heart [Jaunted]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Matt O'Hara] ]]>
Even before the market tanked, Depression-era watering holes were en vogue in a big way, with speakeasies, burlesque shows and classic cocktails abundant on both coasts. While the trend seemed a little kitschy at first, now that we're officially hurtling towards a depression, it's starting to feel a little more like home.
One of LA's most authentic early-Twentieth Century spots is downtown's unsuspecting Edison Lounge. Set in a former power plant, Edison is a huge, open, brick-walled loft with lots of sneaky little hideaway spots to lounge in gigantic antique leather sofas while sipping a "Hemingway" absinthe-and-Champagne cocktail along with simple-but-delicious depression eats like deviled eggs and Dungeness crab salad.
The problem is that places with Great Depression themes like this tend to have decidedly 2009 pricing schemes. But now that the Depression meme is becoming less of a joke, Edison has a '30s imitation we can bet behind. Every Friday from 5pm to 7pm, the lounge is offering free depression eats (grilled cheese melts and tomato soup) along with 35-cent martinis and other special depression cocktails, like the 401(k), a gin cocktail served in a half-empty glass. Kitschy idea, yes; but there's nothing kitschy about 35-cent drinks.
· Edison Lounge [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Edison Lounge] ]]>