Per Se's Long Tasting Is Now $1,000. Is it Worth the Mortgage?
That's before wine! Also: Congestion pricing notes, and price hikes at Cote, Coqodaq, and Katz's
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The $2,000 dinner date, before concierge fees
Perhaps you’re wondering why anyone would care about rising prices at two of the country’s most expensive restaurants.
So let me explain.
Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in Napa Valley aren’t just luxe spots for in-the-know diners. They enjoy the type of fame — good and bad — you’d expect from a small Hollywood movie.
The chef, Thomas Keller, consulted on “Ratatouille,” and he was one of a dozen or so hospitality folks to make an appearance on the third season of “The Bear.”
The “French Laundry Cookbook” has sold over a million copies, as Melissa Clark wrote in a recent review, a level of attention common for a good rock album, less so for an instruction manual for making savory tuiles.
And the armies of cooks who end up striking out on their own? They’re called French Laundry-alums or Per Se alums — in headlines that often omit their actual names, or the restaurant they now work at. I hate that practice, as it perpetuates an Ivy League pedigree system (see also: Noma alum). Yet still, it shows the gravitational force of the Keller brand.
When Pete Wells wrote a tough review of Per Se, it was covered, assessed, and explicated by Slate and other publications in a manner one might expect for an edgy Oscar monologue or a celebrity breakup. It was a pop culture event. And when California Governor Gavin Newsom dined maskless at The Laundry during the pandemic, it became a national news story. Words like elitism and hypocrisy were thrown around. Even “Saturday Night Live” hinted at the affair.
That’s all to say: The French Laundry and Per Se are two of America’s most famous, infamous, and luxurious restaurants. They still hold three Michelin stars each. And they’re still the type of places that non-hedge fund diners might save up for after streaming an old Bourdain show.
Except now, the two restaurants are even more out of reach to everyday gourmands.
The Napa Valley and Manhattan restaurants boosted the price of their standard tasting menus by $35 in the new year. Those entry-level offerings, “celebrating classic dishes from our past repertoire,” per the bookings site, now run $425 per person.
All prices are inclusive of service.
Maybe that doesn’t sound particularly exorbitant, not in today’s world of elite omakase spots. Those venues have been hiking their prices as well. Though let’s be honest, comparisons don’t make things any cheaper. A $1,200 dinner for two, which is what you’ll easily drop after wagyu supplements and a bottle of Champagne at Per Se, is expensive by any yardstick.
But here’s another nugget of news: The longer and pricier “evolution” menus, which debuted at $850 a few years ago, also jumped up in the New Year. They’re now $35 more expensive, coming in at a stratospheric $925. That works out to over two grand for two after taxes and fees.
And remember, you’ll spend more when you start to drink. The cheapest glass of sparkling wine runs $40 at The Laundry, or five dollars more at Per Se; that Big Mac and Sprite always cost more in Manhattan, right?
Now you know: The extended tastings rank just behind Masa’s omakase as two of the country’s priciest menus.
Scroll to the bottom for more details on these “evolution” menus.
Didn’t Per Se and TFL just get reviewed by the NYT again?
Yes! Interim co-critic Melissa Clark wondered whether the venues were still “worth a splurge,” per a late November review.
Here are some of the adjectives and other phrases Clark used in her unstarred “Critic’s Notebook” column: “pasty,” “bland,” “starved of any acid counterbalance,” “spongy,” “mushy,” “starchy,” not to mention “gloppy,” “grainy,” “gooey,” and “gummy” (The Four G’s of the Midpocalypse).
There were bright spots at both venues, including desserts, a truffle custard, and lots of pampering. But: “…Keller’s food is no longer exceptional in a dining landscape that he is largely responsible for creating,” Clark wrote, adding that the experiences lacked the whimsy that Keller famously injected into a staid world of fine dining.
So will it be easier to get into The French Laundry now?
Doubtfully. February reservations were almost completely gone shortly after being released last week. Indeed, a black market still exists for The Laundry, with one site soliciting bids starting at $1,100 for weekend tables.
Per Se is much easier to get into, though weekends can book up a month or two out.
Worth noting: Keller’s fine dining establishments typically raise prices on January 1, either every year or every few years. It’s not uncommon for established restaurants to institute regular price increases to offset a variety of costs, including the salary increases necessary to retain senior staffers.
Though New York restaurants are all facing a variety of rising costs right now.
Congestion pricing begins! Will it make dinner more expensive?
On Sunday, the MTA began its long-awaited congestion pricing plan, designed to fund mass transportation, make our air a little cleaner, reduce traffic, and cut down on the number of Escalades that try to run us over.
Will it actually work? We shall see. It’s an expensive experiment that’s about as popular on Long Island as the IRS.
Then again, taxes aren’t supposed to be popular.
The program, the first of its kind in the U.S., will make dinner a bit pricier if you like cruising into the city for a bite. Motorists will pay nine bucks to drive into the congestion zone — all of Manhattan South of 61st Street — during peak hours. That fee won’t be levied more than once every day, and those taking select tunnels will get a $3 credit during peak hours. Prices are higher for drivers without E-ZPass.
Will this system deter folks from patronizing restaurants or shows in any meaningful way? We’ll find out in the coming months, but my guess is: No, probably not. The $9 congestion fee is still much cheaper than most off-peak return tickets on the LIRR; I pay $21.50 when getting back and forth to Oyster Bay.
Those who carpool or drive on the weekends will save even more.
That said, those are consumer prices. The light delivery trucks that serve so many restaurants will pay $14.40 every time they cross into the congestion zone. Will these costs eventually be passed along to restaurant patrons? Or will the delivery fleets find cost savings if traffic ends up subsiding? We’ll probably experience a little bit of both, but head over to Eater NY and Restaurant Business for interviews with the Baldor and Master Purveyor delivery folks for more details.
Our rising minimum wage — which I support — will have a greater impact on restaurant prices. The city’s full minimum ticked up to $16.50 last week, and the tipped minimum hit $11. Those wages will go up again next year.
Please Welcome Robert Sietsema to Substack!
I wrote about the esteemed critic and the layoffs at Eater just last week. Well, now Robert Sietsema is running a restaurant review Substack, which you can subscribe to here!
For a whole bunch of awesome restaurants that you might want to spend a few extra dollars on, check out our splurge guide!
Speaking of popular restaurants, Cote and Coqodaq are more expensive
Simon Kim’s Coqodaq had a big year in Our Era of Caviar, and prices have started to move up at the fried chicken hotspot. The “Bucket List” prix-fixe has jumped up by $4 to $42, though the caviar-topped nuggets will remain at $28 for now.
And at Cote — a mashup of a Korean BBQ spot and a New York steakhouse — prices are going up yet again, just like they did around this time last year. The restaurant’s so-called “Butcher’s Feast” is going up by $4 to $78. That’s not a big jump, but keep in mind that dinner was just $64 back in 2022.
Even as overall inflation cools, beef prices continue to rise amid strong demand, thinning herds, high feed prices, and other factors.
Is Katz’s hot pastrami still worth it?
A $5 slice from Penn Station.
A $13 beer at your favorite brasserie.
A martini that costs more than a Neapolitan pie.
Often, it’s not the tasting menus that make this city feel inaccessible, but rather the rising prices on more working class indulgences. No one needs a sushi omakase every day, but watching your wallet drain after a coffee and a good Italian sandwich is a special kind of Big Apple burn.
So! You’ll feel all this the next time you go get a hot pastrami. Those prices continue to rise alongside the cost of beef. That’s just the reality.
In recent months, both Katz’s and 2nd Ave Deli have pushed up the overstuffed sandwich to $28.95, a $1.50 increase. Whenever one deli raises prices, the other follows with an identical or near-identical pricing move.
Seems like a completely normal thing to do in free market capitalism, lol.
Keep in mind that tipping your carver is customary at Katz’s, which means that you can expect to spend just under $37 after gratuities and tax for this single sandwich.
Is Katz’s pastrami still worth it at that steep price? It’s a mighty tasty sandwich, towering and tender. Smoky, salty, and peppery. Notice how your carver slices up the brick red meat. It’s quite thick. It smells of happiness and deli musk. I like it.
Heck, it actually gives me pleasure to see tourists waiting on line here. It’s such a quintessential New York experience. Better to queue up at Katz’s than for some TikTok pastry, right? And indeed, $37 is still less than what you’ll end up paying for a gourmet restaurant burger.
Remember: This is something you really need to share. It’s that big.
As for me, I generally prefer the smaller and cheaper pastrami sandwiches at Thea Bakery, which I reviewed this year, or at S&P, which recently inched up to $18. You can also now order a larger pastrami at that Flatiron establishment for $25.50.
How about a (temporary) price drop? Let’s check out Blanca!
Chef Victoria Blamey’s Blanca ranked as the city’s “No. 2” best restaurant on the final Pete Wells Top 100. Dinner is regularly $275 per person, but the chef’s counter is charging just $195 throughout the month of January. Only a few slots remain as of publication time. Go for Blamey’s famed Dungeness crab “chupe,” served in empanada form. Helen Rosner of The New Yorker published a nice review with the headline: “Blanca is Not for Beginners.”
Wait, let’s get back to Thomas Keller. What’s on the Evolution menu?
Excellent question! Keller’s restaurants don’t publish their evolution menus, but an Instagrammer who dined at The French Laundry last spring posted a copy online. The tasting spanned 20 or so courses, about 15 of them savory. That’s about in line with a Per Se extended menu I spotted from a few years back.
Some selections from that evolution menu at TFL:
“Coachella Valley” yellow corn soup
Blue mackerel with tofu puree
Big fin squid “Caesar” with toasted brioche melba
Boudin noir with ris de veau and buttered popcorn grits
King crab poele
Truffled agnolotti
100-day dry-aged American Wagyu
Per Se also offers a five-course salon tasting in a separate room with couch seating and low tables. That now runs $285, up twenty bucks.
Hey Professor Sutton! Do you have any more readings for extra credit?
Sure!
Check out: “Is the French Laundry in Napa Valley still worth the splurge?,” Soleil Ho’s October 2022 take on the fine dining mainstay. The critic managed to snag a seat on one occasion by connecting with a couple on Reddit. There are ups and downs, but on a third visit: “I was struck mostly by how beige, repetitive and one-note everything was.”
Also see Tejal Rao’s’s missive on Bay Area luxury dining from before the pandemic. A key line about The French Laundry: “I felt like a character in a sci-fi movie who had sneaked onto a spaceship for the 1 percent, now orbiting a burning planet.”
And I had a few words to say about Per Se over the years, including this tough 2014 review, and a more positive-ish take five years later.
I’ll be back to reviewing sooner than you think! Part of my January routine is doing as much eating and reading as I can. Helps me recharge a bit.
On that note, I dined well at Rachanon Kampimarn’s UnTable late last month. Get the crab fritters! And just the other week, I had a particularly charming meal at Zimmi’s, a Southern French spot by Jenni Guizio and Maxime Pradié; I hope to return in the next month or two. Also, my folks and I swung by Tom Colicchio’s Small Batch on Long Island for the first time in years. It was great!
See you right here soon enough!
Ryan!!!
You're right to wonder whether the NYT just reviewed Per Se again, since it's hard to know what to make of these Times critic re-visits that include more than one restaurant. The recent re-visit/first visit to multiple Carbones around the country basically slammed the NYC original--describing the recent meal as "just fine but not particularly memorable and often inconsistent. Signatures like the linguine vongole and veal parmesan felt like tired performers going through the motions." YIKES. Especially with the veal parm priced at $89. But it keeps its NYT 3-stars anyway, so what's the point of a re-visit?
Very enjoyable read!