Thread 
I could be easily talked into a $30 hot dog or other sausage.
As I understand it, that’s about the going price of a good lobster roll (outside of a few places in coastal New England) and those are superficially similar. Sure, lobster is an ultrapremium sandwich filler but it sets the expectation.
This thread has me wondering. What is the most I would pay for a really great wiener?
I’m in the “sure, I’d try it” group at $30. What’s the limit? $40, $50, $100?
Although I profess not to uusally care about the price, I do notice that at certain levels I’ll say “I’m not spending $75 for a burger,” or whatever.
So, as I reflect on this, I think $30 is fine and doesn’t cause me heartburn (ha), but much more than that and I think I’d pass. Probably $39.95 is my limit
I’ll eat a burger off the grill at a picnic any time. I’ll eat a smashburger cooked on a flattop. Hell, I’ll eat a burger from Wendy’s. I like hamburgers.
But I really like a burger made from a filet mignon with all fat trimmed off, the meat put through a grinder, then formed into a 1/2 pound patty and sous vide rare.
I’m sure turning filet mignon into burger would make for a very good burger, but I can’t imagine that it would be any better than the filet mignon would be all by itself.
The New Yorker recently had an article about that. People paid a lot more than $30 for the surgery, and it sometimes turned out horribly wrong.
How many of those critics actually paid $29 out of their own pocket?
For me, probably like $40. If there was some history behind hit maybe a bit more. I was having a discussion on another forum about how much I’d pay for an oz of bourbon. I’d go higher for that, but there are some brands/distilleries that are defunct or one off releases. I don’t think there’s an analogous situation for sausage where you couldn’t make more of that type.
That’s a very good question. I’ve been thinking I might try it for $29 - I’m actually very fond of hotdogs/sausages and will at times crave them and prefer them to burgers or other sandwiches. I’m actually quite used to spending $16-18 on higher-quality sandwiches hereabouts and $29 isn’t so massively expensive that I’d pass on it as a one off. I have the luxury of being a little indifferent to occasional splurging on food bills.
But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t do a single hotdog for $50.I’d get a good laugh out of it, but it is doubtful I’d order it. $35? Yeah, I think I still would. $40? Ehhhhhh. So there is definitely some psychological break point there for me, somewhere in the $40-50 range where it would seem a little too much for “just” a hot dog.
I worked at a restaurant that did quarterly-ish “Chef’s Specials.” Pretty much whatever idea popped in the owner’s head, he’d ask the executive chef to work out. Despite living his entire life in Chicago, he was in his 60s before someone introduced him to a Chicago-style hot dog. Lo and behold, guess what chef is whipping up for the next special. That’s right, a $25 Chicago dog. To be fair, it used some pretty high-end ingredients (thus ruining everything a Chicago dog should be), and you got two of them, but it was a rough time convincing servers who are selling filet and sea bass to help advertise a overly-expensive hot dog.
But damn, they were good, even if it annoyed me to call them Chicago dogs.