I grew up in NY (on Long Island), but have been away for 22 years....went in for Memorial Day week and caught up with a good friend for drinks, food, and a smoke....talk about EXPENSIVE:.....1 Tanqueray & tonic and 1 Heineken comes to $ 30 at the rooftop bar at the Peninsula Hotel (the Heineken, alone, was $12), not including tip....then we went to a nearby Italian restaurant, San Pietro....bill came to $ 240 (that was MY portion only...I knew I was going to get screwed when my friend told me we must each have a pasta appetizer with truffles).....anyways, the Monte #2 I had was excellent and helped my digestion process, if not sticker shock.....yikes, nearly $ 300 for dinner and a round of drinks for just myself...I guess the PSD #4 Reserva at $ 50/stick is a relative bargain.....BTW, I was wearing my nice designer jeans and a nice shirt and sport coat but Club Macanudo would not let me in because of the jeans....the taxi would not let me smoke in the car, either...good to be back in San Diego.

well you are correct. the prices here are crazy. byt you gotta love the place. i dont think i could ever live anywhere else. by the way, excelent choice on san pietro.too bad you couldnt get in the mac club. it is a great place!

Food was excellent, and we were able to snag an outdoor table...I'll probably be back for Labor Day weekend as well....I forgot to put the cost in perspective--I went with a friend who is a corporate bond trader who makes $2.5M/year--so for him, a meal like this is probably the same as a $25 dinner for me.

if he makes so much.... he should have paid

He almost always picks up the tab....to keep honest and to pull my weight, I offer to pay--my paying my portion every once in a while constitutes my picking up the bill.

I live in Boston (which New Yorkers tend to call the provinces), where most of us have what amounts to a love-hate relationship with NY. I can be in Manhattan about 3 1/2 hours after pulling out of my driveway, and my wife and I make the trip reasonably often. I gotta admit, I love the city ... the food, the art, the theater, the vibrancy (but surely not the Yankees, and please know I'll deny saying any of this if you tell any of my friends).

Expensive, to be sure, but try to keep it in context. Life's awfully short, so enjoy every dollar's worth.

Boston has world-class restaurants, too, and we're a much smaller and more user-friendly city (plus a World Series sandwiched between two Super Bowls). Let me know if you're ever in the neighborhood and we can smoke something or other together.

jack the second to last sentence hurt me(being a yankee/jet fan) however the things you said about this lovely city! how can i argue.... dont worry, your secretb is safe with me!

I don't know...I've done the high-dollar entertainment bit many many times in big cities all over the country (actually, the world...I had to travel extensively for most of the jobs I've had). I was always on an expense account, so I obviously took clients to some of the better restaurants and recreational offerings of each city I was in. To be honest, while I had some great meals at some of these places, I typically had better meals at little out-of-the-way Mom&Pop establishments in the middle of nowhere than in many four & five star restaurants.......The price you pay for a meal has little to do with how much you enjoy it.

To me, sitting on a beach with sugar-white sand watching crystal-clear emerald-green surf roll in while enjoying a good cigar and a nice cold drink beat any "entertainment" or "Art" offered anywhere I've been.....

The people I've met in the hinterlands are head and shoulders above 95% of the self-styled "sophisticates" I've run into in major metro areas as well.....most of these folks are so insulated from life that they haven't got a clue about what the "real world" is all about, and are too afraid to get out there and really experience it. Their loss.
To each his own.... as they say:
..........Perception is Reality.
JMHO

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rbihari,

Whereabouts in San Diego, Roy?

I live about 20 minutes from sunset boulevard in hollywood and that is exactly why I visit less than once a year. It is sooo damn expensive. A 14-20 dollar drink is not outrageous and a 240 dollar dinner is easy to find down there. In the san fernando valley, you have to really search to find prices like that.

New York didn't blow me away as far as the prices are concerned. It is just as bad in hollywood. Parts of northern cali are bad too. Try some of the nice restraunts in napa. You better bring a weeks pay if you want truffles at a joint in napa.

quote:

Originally posted by pmpimbura:
......You better bring a weeks pay if you want truffles at a joint in napa.

You got it a little reversed.....Actually.....joints are cheaper than truffles in the Nappa...

LOL no argument there.

NYC is spendy...but truffles will always cost you a hefty sum. Last time I ordered a truffle appetizer I think it was 90 bucks. Of course, places like to be sneaky about truffles and they like to leave it off the menu and have the waiter list it as a daily special so you don't know the price unless you ask.

Curt--I live downtown, near Seaport Village and Pantoja Park.

Sobek--Babbo and Il Mulino are a couple of the "designer" Italian restaurants in Manhattan that have the appetizer specials (for $90+) that you mention...while the food at San Pietro was quite good, to be honest, I've never had a bad meal at Carmines--especially the one on the upper west side. Come to think of it, most family style Italian restaurants I have been to usually serve more food than I can handle for a reasonable cost.

Il Mulino is probably one of the more spendy Italian places in town, but it's a damn good place to eat. Haven't been there in a couple years though. My friends keep telling me Brooklyn has much better Italian restaurants for less $$, but I'm too lazy to take the train or a car out there.

m from brooklyn! there is definatly better italian, chinese, and bagel places there! sheepshead bay! bensonhurst! bay ridge!you cant beat these places. plus the pizza in manhatten tyopically aint as good as it is in brooklyn. and as far as bagels.... maybe im partial, but no place in the world makes a bagel like bkln

You are correct about paying through the nose here in The Big Apple. My wife and I usually go out to lunch on Sunday, but recently I have found the $30.00 burgers a bit tough and hard to swallow.

cant loose with carmines!!! hard to get in though! always leave wih a doggy bag!!!