$40 entree is migrating — please pass the ketchup
A new dish is now appearing on menus across the United States: the $40 entree. Such prices used to be the stuff of four-star, white-tablecloth meals, the kind that ended with a diamond ring on the petit four tray. But now entrees over $40 can be found in restaurants that are merely upscale or even chains, where diners wear jeans and tote children. In geographic terms, New York and Las Vegas have led the charge, and in culinary ones, steak and lobster were first and are still most prevalent. But the $40 entree is migrating: to restaurants in Philadelphia, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Denver, and to ingredients such as fish and even pasta.NOT THE CHEFS’ CHOICE?
Restaurateurs say rising rents, ever more elaborate interior decoration and the increasing cost of premium ingredients — especially beef and fish — leave them little choice. “Forty is the new 30,” said Richard Coraine, of Union Square Hospitality Group, which recently began charging $42 for a 1¾-ounce appetizer portion of lobster for lunch at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. Bobby Flay, who recently crossed the $40 mark in his Las Vegas and Atlantic City outposts, says he intentionally loses money on many other entrees to keep prices reasonable.
