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Posh Boston Restaurant for Foodies Who Can't Scrounge Up a Buck
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]
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NYC's 81 Eatery Offering Free Dinner To a Lucky 150 People
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.
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
Recession Dining Goes Global
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.
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
Philly Foodies Get a Faux-Downscale Option
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]
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
The Edison Lounge Has Depression Eats, Depression Drinks and Now, Depression Prices
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]
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
For Boston Foodies, A Deal Whenever it Snows
It's a depressing time for foodies. No one has the money to keep eating those Kobe steaks and white truffles we’re all so used to, and even though plenty of restaurants are rolling out recession specials, the perpetually horrible weather throughout much of the country is making leaving the house a bone-shivering ordeal, so it had better be a damn good deal.
So our favorite special we've seen yet is one that combines our wallet and weather woes—the Snow Emergency Deal at Boston's favorite high-end pasta house, Prezza. One of about a hundred Italian places packed into Boston's North End neighborhood, Prezza is a critic's darling—and a $40-an-entrée consumer's nightmare. But now, any time it snows in Boston (which, is, um, way too often) diners at Prezza are treated to a free order of housemade potato gnocchi Bolognase.
Seriously, free. OK, there is one catch--you gotta buy a glass of wine--but still, that's a pretty hefty savings!
· Prezza [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Prezza]
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
Rouge Drops a Course, Wins Our Heart
Suddenly, it seems every high-end restaurant in the country is coming out with discount menus in a desperate attempt to keep their tables full. The problem with all these Restaurant Week menus and recession deals is that they always offer a good value for three courses, but that's assuming you would order three courses anyway.
The truth is, you end up spending $40 a person on three courses, but if you had ordered off the regular menu, you would have spent $25 on one great course and been just as happy. Which is fine for normal times, but with everyone's wallets squeezed, we're looking for some serious deals.
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Sandwiches / → All Tags
Mahoney's Po-Boy Shop
What’s a foodie to do when times get tough? Jaunted has you covered with our list of high-class restaurants with recession-era pricing.
Of all the development problems in post-Katrina New Orleans, local foodies complain loudest about one thing: The proliferation of high-end “New Orleans cuisine” in the touristy districts, and the dearth of traditional, no-frills po' boy shops.
So NOLA residents were justifiably thrilled when Mahoney's Po-Boy Shop opened on Magazine Street. (And now that the rest of us are hard-hit in the pocket, tourists may start venturing there, too.)
You won’t find a shred of fusion-y, New Orleans-meets-New York food at Mahoney's, just traditional giant sandwiches like fried catfish, shrimp and Cochon De’lait (Cajun pig roast). Small po' boys start at $6.75, and if you know anything about eating down south, we probably don’t have to tell you they ain’t that small.
Related Stories:
· Mahoney’s Po-Boy Shop [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants Map [Jaunted]
[Photo: wikimedia]
