NYC establishment is the Bernie Madoff of restaurants

[pancakes3]

@Vinyl Turnip

@"Shalmanese

Well, it was for a white truffle pasta dish and “truffle supplements” tend to go for ~$75 - $100 at white tablecloth restaurants these days. So yes, Nello is still out of line but only by a factor of 3 - 4x. Honestly, what kind of rube walks into even a moderately fancy restaurant and not know that any truffle dish is likely to be several times the price of the next most expensive item?

Gee, I don’t know. Maybe one or two of the tens of millions of people who visit NYC each year from all around the world, who (les pauvres!) may not be as hip & with-it as your average Doper who sprang from the womb knowing the market rate for truffles, and may (incroyable!) not even know what the fuck a truffle is to begin with?

1 - Quibble with Shalmanese that overpaying “only a factor of 3-4x” is only reserved for rubes. I’d be pretty pissed off if I wandered into a fast food burger joint and they charged me $4-5 to add bacon to my cheeseburger. Truffle or not, the prices are outrageous and it doesn’t mean someone who ordered truffled something or other is a rube to be shocked at the $500 price tag.

2 - Quibble with Vinyl. Truffles have been prized since antiquity. I’d say a lot of people know that truffles are expensive just like they know caviar is expensive. or veal. or kobe beef. especially in today’s food-conscious, celeb chef environment.

[pancakes3]

@Gray_Ghost

Missed the edit window, but John Mariani from Esquire mentions the following about white truffles and their pricing:

One thing I’m finding hilarious in searching for pricing on white truffle dinners/dishes, is that foodies will wax orgasmic about the various white truffle tastings they’ve attended, but no one seems to want to say how much the affair cost them. Draw your own conclusions.

OTOH, this magazine article mentioned a white truffle tasting dinner with wine at Valentino in Santa Monica, CA in 2010. Valentino’s supposed to be one of the better Italian restaurants in the entire U.S. The dinner was listed at only $200 a head, which is frankly a lot less than I thought it would be.

Ray’s Hellburger in northern virginia adds a $10 supplement for your burger to be cooked in truffle oil.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Swords_to_Plowshares

By far my favorite New York Times restaurant review is that of Nello (here).

(Possibly a hijack.) My favorite New York Times restaurant review is this one, for Ago, an Italian restaurant in TriBeCa.

[Zjestika]

@It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery

I found this on Yelp.

The 20% added gratuity is over 7 grand! Okay, so does the server get that money? No doubt it’s pooled between server, sommelier, host, captain and on and on. Even if they got 10% of the gratuity that would be a pretty great day’s pay.

[kaylasdad99]

I’m still not getting the Bernie Madoff connection. Do they take your money up front, and feed you the leftovers from other people’s plates?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@kaylasdad99

I’m still not getting the Bernie Madoff connection. Do they take your money up front, and feed you the leftovers from other people’s plates?

I think you might need his pre-prison income to buy a decent meal there. It’s a ripoff, just like his business model was.

[VinylTurnip]

@kaylasdad99

I’m still not getting the Bernie Madoff connection. Do they take your money up front, and feed you the leftovers from other people’s plates?

I think the link is Bernie Madoff > pyramid scheme > pyramid shape > Judas chair > ass torture > Nello, but I’m fond of unlikely connections.

[joebuck20]

@Marley23

Better question: why would anybody pay?

Maybe they have a couple of big, beefy bouncers at the door who would, ahem, take issue, if you decided to dine and dash.

[Marley23]

@joebuck20

Maybe they have a couple of big, beefy bouncers at the door who would, ahem, take issue, if you decided to dine and dash.

It’s an expensive, allegedly classy restaurant, not a bar.

[TruCelt]

@Shalmanese

Nello is famous in NY as the place to go to see and be seen and eat mediocre food. Everyone knows it and it’s been the same way for 25 years. There’s maybe a half dozen of them around NY, some of them even harder to get into and serving even more mediocre food like Raos

I disagree with this comparison. One dines at Raos only after becoming connected enough to be invited. And the food there is highly respected by chefs everywhere. It is Italian American soul-food, but at it’s best.

Nello is complete crap from everything I’ve ever heard, but it’s a place to be seen if you want to be considered for inclusion into the society that supports places like Raos. Go enough times, comport yourself well, and you may eventually be introduced.

[joebuck20]

@Marley23

It’s an expensive, allegedly classy restaurant, not a bar.

Well, the key word here is “allegedly.” Anyway, intimidation is not an unheard of M.O. for places that pull these types of schemes.

[Typo_Negative]

@Simplicio

That doesn’t really work if you don’t disclose the prices until after people have eaten.

Is it not common knowledge that if you have to ask how much it is, you cannot afford it?

[Marley23]

@joebuck20

Anyway, intimidation is not an unheard of M.O. for places that pull these types of schemes.

I don’t know what kinds of scams are out there, but I’ve never seen bouncers at a New York City restaurant. And anyway a place that employed thugs would have trouble attracting the clientele Nello evidently relies upon.

[VinylTurnip]

Maybe they sit in the back polishing their brass knuckles until needed.

[Shalmanese]

@pancakes3

Ray’s Hellburger in northern virginia adds a $10 supplement for your burger to be cooked in truffle oil.

Truffle oil is a completely different thing from fresh truffles, it’s made from a synthetic chemical concocted in a lab and has never seen a truffle. The $10 supplement for truffle oil is even more of a ripoff than Nello’s given that an entire bottle of truffle oil can be had for $10 and that you would be using a tablespoon at most with the dish.

[JRDelirious]

:eek: Y’know, even in NYC if a joint’s going to clip me like that then I’d at least expect strippers.

[Chronos]

How would a restaurant like this even get established to begin with? I can see how “Important people eat there because important people eat there” could be self-perpetuating, but there had to have been a first crowd of important people to get it started.