Is it me?

I was checking on some on line reviews of restaurants I haven't visited yet. Found a couple that looked wonderful for special occasions. As I'm scrolling through their menu I see they offer some wonderful steaks - both Australian and Japanese wagyu cuts with prices in the $60+ - $300 range depending on the cut and weight. Seems pretty reasonable given the quality of the meat being sold. But then I see that if you want a Bernaise sauce, a horseradish sauce or au jus on the side you'll be charged an additional $4-6 . To me, that just screams chincy. Why would someplace selling such highend cuts of meat then turn around and nickel and dime their clientele as if they were an automat? We're only talking about 2-3 ounces but they are treating it as if it were Manuka honey. Or am I off base?

[Robin Garr]

Carla, I don't think your concerns are unreasonable, but I also think the post-pandemic is a rough time for restaurants. If you go to the grocery, you know how crazy food prices are getting. You've been in the business, so you know restaurant profit margins are really slim. The executive chef or manager has to use a very sharp pencil to try to stay in the black without driving customers away with unreasonable prices, and then add in the (overdue) rise in server wages, and I sometimes wonder if we aren't barrelling toward some kind of collision with ... what? I dunno ...

Sort of like the restaurant that offers the perfect steak, and then has a customer who orders ketchup? You have to offer it, but you can discourage customers from ordering it?

I get what you are saying, Carla. But frankly, someone paying up to $300 for a cut of meat is likely not too concerned about money!

Yeah, OK. All valid points especially with the increase in labor prices. And then there's goodness knows what on the horizon for produce prices. I guess you can't blame them for eeking out where you can and in the least obvious areas. So you all make good points. I do take exception to likening a good bernaise or au jus to ketchup however.

[Robin Garr]

I do take exception to likening a good bernaise or au jus to ketchup however.

I don't think you're going to get any argument over that around here!

By the way, queso or guacemole with your $12 burrito will cost you $2.75 each. So if someone wants queso and guac, which is pretty common, you've added nearly 45-50% to your cost. So the $6 addition of bearonaise to the $300 beef is actually a better value (if we don't count getting conned by spending that much for a piece of dead flesh to begin with)!

I shudder to think what those avocado prices will be 8-9 months from now. Either no available labor in the field to pick them or import prices on them that are sky high. "The times they are a-changin'" as the song goes.

I've probably posted here before about being asked whether I wanted ice in my old fashioned at an upscale Chicago restaurant. I replied in the affirmative, got a nice spherical "cube," and there was a $3 additional charge on my bill for the ice.

Re: Queso and guacamole, one of my favorite things about Taco Choza is that the salsa is free (in the counter fridge with the hot sauces), so you can order queso or guac and still get salsa at no additional charge.