PrintWhat A $47,221 Lunch Looks Like
It's already made the New York blog rounds, but we couldn't resist posting this receipt from Nello's in New York, where Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich laid down $47,000 to cover lunch for a party of 6.
Well, when your idea of a good time is buying up major British football teams and 500-foot yachts, a five-figure lunch doesn't seem that lavish in comparison.
Whoever got that automatic 20% gratuity must have been pretty jazzed. [tumbler via Buzzfeed]
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55 Comments:
well in all fairness how many bottles of wine where purchased @ $500 a pop (literally)?
Lvn4life at 4:00PM on 11/04/09
Actually it's five THOUSAND dollars a pop. That better be some darn good wine!
elaineathon at 4:16PM on 11/04/09
This country has gone insane. Everything about that bill is ridiculous.
pbelardo at 4:18PM on 11/04/09
Wow. And yet, presumably other people eat here on a regular basis and pay these same prices.
Peggasus at 4:24PM on 11/04/09
@Peggasus: Yeah, the $30 asparagus, $7.50 espresso, and $9 cappuccino made me wince more than the wine prices.... if you buy wine that pricey, you know what you're getting into.
Carey Jones at 4:28PM on 11/04/09
a serving of water for $12. ? That's crazy.
thegourmetgal at 4:28PM on 11/04/09
pbelardo - I agree. Insane. Ridiculous. Offensive.
alosha7777 at 4:32PM on 11/04/09
$47,000 restaurant receipts should be hand lettered in gold-flake calligraphy, on housemade paper.
Cuttin' corners, Nello's. Tsk, tsk.
semarr at 4:38PM on 11/04/09
wow... $600 for three dishes of truffle tagliolini?
crazy, but i'd be lying if i said i wouldn't do the same if i could.
elron at 4:42PM on 11/04/09
Wow. Someone certainly got a nice tip!
Mike13241 at 5:00PM on 11/04/09
seriously...they couldn't comp the ridiculously expensive water?
BananaMonkey at 5:10PM on 11/04/09
I'm glad someone out there is stimulating the American economy. That bill is insane!
whimsygirl at 5:10PM on 11/04/09
That gratuity alone would have paid off the balance of my student loan. Sigh.
studyzone at 5:10PM on 11/04/09
Gee...I've never even heard of Nello's. I must of very low class!
http://www.chillonthecheap.wordpress.com
chillonthecheap.wordpress.com at 5:12PM on 11/04/09
why is it crazy that a billionaire can afford this meal? I'm sure its nothing compared to his other expenses...like fuel for a Lear jet or his football team or his yachts. If its a business meal, he's probably going to make back the expense in an hour. If its a personal meal, well its all relative. some people probably find it offensive that others can spend $100 pp on a meal but others may find that reasonable.
Plus I wouldn't find it offensive to get that tip. $7K!!! I wish I had even that much to spend on a meal.
asianempress at 5:16PM on 11/04/09
Now THAT'S a meal! I wish I could start every dinner with a couple Johnny Walker Blue Labels and finish it with a magnum of Cristal. Good lord.
DanielJ at 5:22PM on 11/04/09
there is absolutely no reason why that food should be that expensive. it's just onanism.
stphjay at 5:22PM on 11/04/09
Oh well, the waiter/ess is going to have to declare the tip now :)
cidonie at 5:33PM on 11/04/09
Well, considering that 99% of the cost was wine, it's not terribly staggering. Well, okay, all the prices are high - but for a d-bag "rich guy" resto, they're to be expected. What boggles my mind is the sheer amount of alcohol consumed. I mean, 5 bottles of wine, 2 magnums (= another 4 bottles), a round of tawny ports, and, what the heck, a couple pours of JW Blue Label.
Someone in that group was praying to the porcelain god later - puking up all those truffles, I'm sure.
sanhedrin at 5:54PM on 11/04/09
Its nothing short of vulgar that a pasta dish could cost 36 bux! A whole box is what, under 2, even for the good imported stuff. And how much could it be to make a butt kicking sauce! Paying for ambience is fine, but this is just ridiculous!
Anyone for Olive Garden?
Peensez at 6:06PM on 11/04/09
LOL @asianempress I wonder what the tip was... $30? I hope not!
Cassaendra at 6:13PM on 11/04/09
Oh, and would the person tip before tax or after? :P
Cassaendra at 6:13PM on 11/04/09
@cassaendra--it was $7300...it's on the bill.
BananaMonkey at 6:15PM on 11/04/09
Discusting overpricing and overspending aside. It doesn't seem right that 20% is automatically added to this kind of bill. Were the dishes so much heavier, were the bottles that much harder to serve than a $30 bottle? Why should the server gain from the age of a fine wine by getting a percentage of the price?
DCLSweetspot at 6:24PM on 11/04/09
some things are worth paying extra for...but what makes no sense is when someone pays extra for nothing... spending money simply because you have it? wtf??? makes the person/people look like fools.
better have come with a round of blow jobs if you ask me. with a side of nice ass, and i don't know what else....
paulie walnuts at 6:30PM on 11/04/09
I don't make that much a year. Even when I *am* able to find a full-time job.
blondewithabrain at 6:50PM on 11/04/09
Yo homie, Cristal is so ghetto. Just keepin it real.
Tactful_Cactus at 7:18PM on 11/04/09
They could have had a ten thousand dollar meal (that's reasonable, no?) and given me the rest.
hiimlauren at 7:22PM on 11/04/09
Usually your included gratuity is on food only not on wine service.
pamstar at 7:37PM on 11/04/09
Thank you for that pamstar. I never tip on the beverages the same as the food service. What a total rip-off although I doubt this group complained like I would have.
steveTV at 8:35PM on 11/04/09
What's parmesan chunks? Is it just 2 hunks of parmesan for $28?
Tia Kim at 9:54PM on 11/04/09
According to this WSJ blog, he added on another $5K gratuity for a grand total of $52,221.09!
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2009/11/02/roman-abramovichs-52000-lunch-bill/
Leo1881 at 9:58PM on 11/04/09
I ate at Nello's and it was just an average meal at a ridiculous price.
I was embarassed at the prices of pastas........
All the "fabulous" people were there, news anchors and retired athletes (whoopie).....good people watching, but glad someone else was paying the bill!
Stacey Snacks at 11:26PM on 11/04/09
Once in my life, I'd like to be offered a glass of DRC La Tache.
Perhaps only Petrus compares. Worth $5000 a bottle? I don't know, but I'd sure like a taste.
famdoc at 11:28PM on 11/04/09
I sure as hell hope that 20% gratuity was split across the house staff - for the entire day.
diegorivera2 at 11:35PM on 11/04/09
absurd.
yayfood at 12:56AM on 11/05/09
How much?!
If I was stupidly rich I might treat my friends and family to a stupidly expensive meal. But only one!
nibblepig at 7:49AM on 11/05/09
Wow, the final bill ($52,221.09) came out to the price of a home in some cities...YIKES.
Oh well, it's all relative, I suppose.
Cassaendra at 8:10AM on 11/05/09
this entire post makes me sick.
gastronomeg at 10:13AM on 11/05/09
Unfortunately, this makes me detest the rich even more than I did before.
I'm sure the alcohol was used as a 'lubricant' if this was a business meal. I guess if your are a Russian oligarch, then you don't seem to mind spending a year's salary (not mine!) on one little ol' luncheon. This just shows that the excess of the classes is still alive and well and living in the food industry as much as Wall Street.
queenbleu at 10:33AM on 11/05/09
The $25,000 for 5 bottles of wine or $100 truffle carpaccios don't seem quite as ridiculous to me as the $12 bottle of water, $9 cappucinos, $55 milanesa, $14 parmesan chunks, or $39 spaghetti. I suppose it's either because I'm not as familiar in the market for enormous truffles and expensive vintages of wine, or because the markup on the luxury items may be a larger dollar value, but a smaller percentage of the cost of those items.
andrewr at 11:01AM on 11/05/09
I don't see why there are so many people upset by this. Sure, we don't have money like this guy, so we can't indulge like he does; for that I am either jealous or envious, can't figure which one. I can't say I am disgusted by it though. It's his money, he could flush it down the toilet if he wanted, and essentially he just did, but again, it is his money. Everyone knows restaurants charge ridiculous mark-ups on alcohol, particularly wine and Nello's is no exception. Hell, I drink wine that is $5 a bottle from my local liquor store and have seen it on menus for $8 a glass!! Okay, I'm jealous and envious and it seems most of you are too.
funkopolis at 11:02AM on 11/05/09
He certainly can use his money however he wishes, but it doesn't stop me from finding this disgusting. And I'm not envious at all.
Sandalola at 12:19PM on 11/05/09
@sanhedrin: It was a table full of Russians. Therefore, the amount of alcohol consumed was not particularly outrageous.
sheba0915 at 1:04PM on 11/05/09
It's always those little extras that add up, I guess.
Or the f*king crazy-ass wine!
Stushi at 2:41PM on 11/05/09
I took my sweetie out for a lovely Thai meal on Sunday, no wine or beer and I had a diet cola. I didn't order appetizers because I was trying to keep the bill reasonable and it still came out to about $28 with tax and tip.
We each ordered combinations that included our dish of choise, veggie pad thai and steam rice. I was pretty satisfied!
Stushi at 2:44PM on 11/05/09
What funkopolis said... :)
tatianak at 2:50PM on 11/05/09
@DCLSweetspot: Well, by that logic, why do we do a percentage for different dishes as well? It takes the same effort to bring out a plate that costs $20 as a plate that costs $8. We still do a percentage in those cases. Perhaps we should just give tips of a set fee rather than a variable percentage.
@sheba0915: a little strange that they didn't drink any vodka though.
wunami at 2:54PM on 11/05/09
I find the outrage and disgust...odd. Why is it our business to judge what he does with his own money? @queenbleu, why should you detest the rich? He spent a lot on lunch - so what? At least he was more generous than he had to be with his server. Why all the anger? We have no way of knowing how he uses his money on a regular basis - nor is it our business. He might be just as lavish in his giving to charity for all we know.
Lighten up, people.
Kiwords at 3:06PM on 11/05/09
Why is everyone mad. He added about $50,000 to the US's economy. Remember that he is from Russia and deals in rubles. Now his rubles have become dollars. Go USA!
Nathan Teager at 4:03PM on 11/05/09
@Nathan Teager: Haha, this made me smile. You're right. Give us your poor, your tired...and the occasional hungry millionaire.
GumdropMenace at 5:30PM on 11/05/09
2 chunks of parmesan: $28
Not having to tolerate the company of the poor: priceless
TommySalami at 9:17AM on 11/06/09
@Peensez: I guarantee you that Nello's didn't use $2-a-box pasta for the pasta specials.
I, too, am amused by all the outrage. A lot of people made a lot of money off this guy: isn't that a good thing?
klg19 at 3:42PM on 11/06/09
This wasn't a meal; it was a money laundering operation.
Sternlight at 4:33PM on 11/06/09
Wtf?! Are all Nello's dishes laced with gold??? I can't believe people are stupid enough to pay those ridiculously high prices...
KitchenVixxen at 7:49PM on 11/06/09