Oh, I don’t know. Football tickets. That $290 would be enough for a family of four to take in a baseball game. Skip two meals like that and you’ve got a plane ticket to just about anywhere in the US. Four meals skipped and you could buy yourself a really nice snowblower.
But you’re missing the point. The person who pays $300 for a meal likely has the money to do all of those things; whereas most of us would have to make choices among them.
The I guess he has never tasted the difference between a really good steak or wine and a mediocre steak or wine. I don’t mind dropping a $150 for a nice steak dinner for two. I can certainly taste the difference between an Angelo & Maxis or Ruth’s Chris steak and one cooked at Outback Steakhouse. Sophistication is being able to appreciate the difference.
And let’s not underestimate the value of cliqueiness or exclusivity. At a nice New York steakhouse, you generally don’t see a bunch of fat Midwesterner tourists with screaming kids wearing their napkins like a bib. That’s why there’s a TGIFridays and a Red Lobster in Times Square.
But yeah, there gets to be a point where there are diminishing returns. At a certain point it just becomes pretentious to pay so much for food.
I suppose the “clique” is composed of the VIPs with subscriptions who always leave after the first act. I love them dearly; I always gank their seats.
That is a good point. It’s hard for me to relate to that kind of money. If you can afford it and it’s important to you, go for it. That excess cash of yours needs to get pumped back into the economy.
Yeah, god forbid you rub elbows with fat people. Not to mention Midwesterners. :rolleyes:
I think another factor in sophistication is how easily ashamed you are. Can you really spend $300 for a steak without guilt? Many people can’t, and that bitter taste of guilt takes away whatever enjoyment they may have received. For instance, I like sushi. I can tell the difference between expensive sushi and cheap sushi (yeah, I know cheap doesn’t always equal worse quality, but bear with me). However, the guilt I feel at dropping twenty bucks a person on sushi overpowers my enjoyment of said sushi. A bad taste in my mouth, as it were. So some people might indeed get more enjoyment from cheap food since they don’t have to feel guilty for eating it. I’m really surprised nobody’s mentioned guilt before now.
Actually one thing Just struck me about the OP. $300 for a steak and a single glass of wine? Sounds a little steep. I hope that at least includes tax and tip. 
davenportavenger: Why would anyone feel guilty about eating good food if they can afford it? You’re happy, the Chef’s happy, the staff and owner of the restaurant is happy. Where’s the guilt-inducing harm?
And the people who can’t afford to eat at all aren’t happy at all. I’ll admit it, I’m the kind of person who is easily guilted. My code of ethics ain’t for everyone.
I find that after 4 or 5 glasses, it all tastes just wonderful!
I am a consummate elitist. However, I do realize that ‘elite’ taken out of context is meaningless. We throw parties here in New York. They are very cheap usually, and we pull them off by having an involved community.
However, we actively exclude a certain sector of society. We try to keep the dumbass ghetto thugs out of our parties. We try to keep the “bridge and tunnel” crowd out because they destroy something very valuable to us ‘intimacy’.
One of the most special things I’ve ever experienced in my life is intimacy in a room full of 300 people. It creates a much sexier atmosphere, where people are more comfortable, and it gets people walking around scantily clad, unafraid that they are going to be harassed, and we don’t even require bouncers. We can leave our bags with our laptops in a corner knowing they won’t get stolen. We don’t have to worry about people making the atmosphere stuffier with a fear that we don’t share with them. It’s not an elitism based on wealth or body consciousness, it’s an elitism of open-mindedness and self-expression, but it’s still elitist.
I don’t understand why people begrudge cliqueyness or being selective about who you are hanging out with. I don’t think that I am of some kind of objective elite, but within the context I am one of the elite and I want to be surrounded by the elite. It has no intrinsic value past the particular events in question, but it enriches my life to be with the type of people who are open and willing to share, it eliminates a lot of the social awkwardness that characterizes our suburban society, that I personally dislike.
Erek
What place is this?
I can’t imagine paying $300 to go to a football game. Four hours of sitting there in the cold watching a game I mostly don’t understand between teams I have no emotional investment in? No thanks.
I don’t have time to do any traveling right now. I have no use for a snowblower, but if I did, I’d be a fool for spending huge bucks on an extravagant meal when there were things I really needed.
And let’s be clear: if I were spending $300 on a meal for one, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime spectacular meal, and I’m sure most other foodies would agree. It would be more analogous to going to the Super Bowl than going to a regular-season game.
So, where is the line drawn on how much a meal may ethically cost? Do you think that nobody should eat a meal of better quality than, say, TGI Friday’s, until everyone can eat at TGI Fridays?
Guilt over what? Not being destitute? Sorry, but I don’t feel guilt or shame over being able to afford nice things. I work…reasonibly hard for my money and I will spend it as I see fit. That said, I may experience a “I can’t believe I’m dropping $300 on a freakin’ meal!” feeling. But if I can afford it, I really don’t care.
Yeah, god forbid you rub elbows with gold chain wearing juice-heads. Not to mention the Jersey crowd. 
I hate to break it to you, but according to your post in this thread you say you live in the Bedford-Stuy section of Brooklyn - which would make you technically “B&T”.
It’s your right to keep people out of your elitist parties, however it is also my right to begrudge you for that. By closing yourself off to new people, I think you’re really cheating yourself. How does it enrich you to be around people who are exactly like you? Also, define “dumbass ghetto thugs.” Is that just black people or are white trash banned too?
For me, personally, the line is drawn at $10 a plate for a single meal, and even that is pushing it. I don’t care where other people draw their lines (okay, maybe I do a little, I don’t think I could date a foodie for instance since I would have to accompany them to expensive meals that would make me feel wretched), as long as they can live with them. It doesn’t even have much to do with global poverty or famine or anything, just that I was raised not to spend a lot on something that will be converted to poop in twelve hours.
Well, good for you. I would just feel sick to my stomach to spend so much on food, though, and that sickness would cancel out the “gourmetness” of the meal for me. Strictly my own feelings.
You moved to Manhattan when again? Wasn’t that like only two or three years ago?
Erek
I party with black people all the time. Just not the dumbass ghetto thugs. I am talking about the dust smoking idiots that get really fucked up and grope girls, and we’ve gotta get a couple guys together to throw them out risking a confrontation with a dusthead. Of course, I should be openminded to them, right?
There is no such thing as “exactly like me” I am one of a kind. I party with people from all over the world. I’ve been to big mega-clubs where anyone can walk in, but somehow the number of actual relationships I’ve made there pails in comparison to smaller more intimate parties where word of mouth creates a certain self-selection process that weeds out the assholes.
You’re welcome to begrudge me anything you want, but your naivete isn’t too compelling an argument. I’d be willing to bet I meet more people on a regular basis than you do, and I have to be selective, because there are a lot of people out there who can waste my time, and that’s the simple truth of it.
I like going to parties where I can see beautiful people dancing wearing almost nothing, and if we went out and advertised our parties so that just anyone could get in, it would ruin that atmosphere. So your type of pluralism would destroy the effect that I am going for, and I would be less satisfied.
Why don’t you go out and have sex with just anyone? Is it because you’re a closed minded elitist? What about inviting them into your home? You should have no problem allowing a ghetto thug smoking angel dust into your house, otherwise you are just a snob.
You call it elitism, I call it survival skills. When I throw a party, I consistently hear that it was one of the best parties that the attendees have been to, and they are generally a pretty ethnically diverse crowd. The common thread is a certain social level of social sophistication that helps me to avoid stupid problems that I’ve had to encounter in the past.
Erek
If you take sophistication in the meanin of ‘sophisticated weapons’, I think the value of sophistication is increasing your knowledge and skill of whatever subject you apply it to.
That means that with sophistication comes a great range of options to choose from. You can apply that knowledge to make better choices. That is the true value of sophistication.
I understand the OP, but this is not really sophistication. This is being spoilt. The tiny bit of extra pleasure is bought at far too great a cost. Especially since pleasure is relative - defined by the highs and lows you’ve experienced to compare any new experience with. Increasing your highest highs devaluates your previous highs, and just makes it harder for you to achieve (your) maximum pleasure. This is why I personally am not interested in drugs, for instance. Say that I would try to use them to increase my sexual pleasure. There is nothing wrong with it now. I would just be raising the standard of pleasure, but knowing that you can’t keep raising that pleasure for ever, pleasure will soon again feel normal, except now having become much more expensive.
The good news is that you can really fix it. Just eat rice (the healthy one) for a while, and add vegetables only twice a week. Keep this up for for say a month, and then start experimenting with different brands of rice. Once you’re getting into that, start being able to distinguish the different tastes, and maybe experiment with adding some spices during cooking. Maybe after a while you’ll find that special shop that has so many new wonderful types of rice.
After a while, you’ll be a sophisticated rice eater. Then if you get to a restaurant, you will either appreciate almost everything there, or wonder why you bother eating out at all.
And Erek, nothing wrong with finding a good group of friends. For some this is living in a small village where they know, trust and support each other, and for you this is a group of 300 well behaved, good looking people who know how to dress for a party. As long as you and your group age respectfully, I don’t foresee many problems. 
You’d really spend that money on those things? Me, I’m perfectly happy watching baseball on television. And why travel by plane when there are perfectly good hiking trails a ten-minute drive from my house? A snowblower? Screw that, shovelling my driveway is relaxing.
It seems to me that by appreciating baseball tickets/trips to foreign lands/snowblowers so much, you’re lessening your ability to enjoy the things I enjoy.
Or is it just that you have different pleasures than I have, and my enjoyment of $300 steaks is no better or worse than your enjoyment of $300 baseball tickets?
Daniel
PS Disclaimer: I don’t eat steak, I don’t like baseball, and I am baffled at someone enjoying a $1200 snowblower, unless his name is Frosty. The plane tickets sound good, though.
Sure, sophistication can be a good thing. When I was younger and had less money, I used to scoff at people who spent a lot of money on something. I’m still that way a little. I don’t like conspicuous consumption and don’t care about brands. I’m all about actual quality, not perceived quality. I’d rather get a bespoke suit for the same price I would have to pay for an Armani. The custom-made suit is probably going to be of higher quality, with better fabric and stitching, and will absolutely fit better since it was made expressly for me, not bought off a rack and altered.
I like good wine. I was introduced to quality wine by an excellent merchant who unfortunately went out of business due to a bad store location. He still writes reviews online, I think. Joe had $200 bottles of wine, but he also put out 20 “Joe’s Picks” every month. The wines had to be good and have good cost performance. I started by buying a couple of his picks every month and started to read about wine to find out what to look for. I went to wine-tastings where I could try stuff that was normally too expensive to buy. Because of that foundation I can appreciate good wine and I can also point out what wines are worth the price and what ones are overrated.
The expensive things are often, but not always, worth it. To my mind, true sophistication is knowing what makes something quality. When you know what’s worth it, you won’t be spending money blindly, just because you can, you’ll be making a conscious choice to spend it on things that you consider to be worth the price. Like E-Sabbath said, you can sometimes reproduce that $300 meal for a lot less, if you know what you’re doing. On the other hand, I’ve gotten to taste $200-a-bottle champagne and, hell yeah, there’s a difference between that and $30 Asti. Having that as a basis for comparison, I can (I hope I hope I hope) someday find an acceptable substitute within my budget.