Results tagged “recessionspecial”

       

As if to exorcise the ghost of a harmonica-playing Bruce Willis, the old Hard Rock Café space has once again been converted into a ‘temporary restaurant’ called the Bon Appétit Supper Club and Café. (It actually has nothing to do with the ghost of Bruno; it's a benefit for Chefs For Humanity) For two weeks, wandering midtown lunchgoers can enjoy menus designed by celebrity chefs and the discerning kitchen of Bon Appétit magazine. Sandwiches (like the Yellowfin Tuna Niçoise number, above) cost $7 or $8, desserts run from $1-$3, and nothing at the café is more than $10.

First the national debt clock runs out of placeholder digits, and now the price of two hot dogs and a drink from Gray’s Papaya—their legendary ‘Recession Special’—is increasing five whole cents short of a buck, from $3.50 to $4.45. On the subject of the price hike that he'd warned the world about last February, 72-year-old founder Nicholas Gray tells the Times, “It’s always very traumatic for me as well as the customers.”

In his one-star review of Elettaria earlier this year, the Times's Frank Bruni described the atmosphere as “self-consciously adorable, with girly flourishes,” and “dollhouse elements.” Last week, in an article about gender roles and restaurants, Bruni reiterated: “The bound linen dinner menu evokes a diary and elements of the décor bring to mind a dollhouse; I spotted more women than men.”