A quick note on recent spot price checks in the restaurant world.
Balthazar's prices have gone up 25-60% in the last couple of years. The regular fruits de mer that had been $70 is now $110, the fancy went from $115 to $165. Well, you do get half a lobster with the fancy one, and we know how lobster prices are through the roof. Or something. Steak frites, $29.50 to $37, duck shepherd's pie from $18 to $28. Owie.
In other Balthazar news, the wine list has gone totally to shit. There are two or three good things still on it, but they look like the last of the old inventory that hasn't sold through. Chris Goodhart (and Nossiter before him) put a bunch of great stuff on that list, and it is all gone. Instead of a top 3 producer in an obscure AOC, they have someone a couple of dozen rungs down, but the prices seem to have risen (and of course, the good wines are not always so much more expensive depending on how fancy your AOC is). In spot after spot, there is nothing to drink.
Menu from 2010 here.
Current menu here.
In considerably brighter news, the prices at 10 Bells are much, much more reasonable these days. It was common in the old days to reach a good average price, but this required drinking the comped bottle at the end of the night when you really should have gone home instead. Much less pain now.
So go check them out.
Balthazar's prices have gone up 25-60% in the last couple of years. The regular fruits de mer that had been $70 is now $110, the fancy went from $115 to $165. Well, you do get half a lobster with the fancy one, and we know how lobster prices are through the roof. Or something. Steak frites, $29.50 to $37, duck shepherd's pie from $18 to $28. Owie.
In other Balthazar news, the wine list has gone totally to shit. There are two or three good things still on it, but they look like the last of the old inventory that hasn't sold through. Chris Goodhart (and Nossiter before him) put a bunch of great stuff on that list, and it is all gone. Instead of a top 3 producer in an obscure AOC, they have someone a couple of dozen rungs down, but the prices seem to have risen (and of course, the good wines are not always so much more expensive depending on how fancy your AOC is). In spot after spot, there is nothing to drink.
Menu from 2010 here.
Current menu here.
In considerably brighter news, the prices at 10 Bells are much, much more reasonable these days. It was common in the old days to reach a good average price, but this required drinking the comped bottle at the end of the night when you really should have gone home instead. Much less pain now.
So go check them out.
