At a certain tier of New York restaurants, once rare luxuries have become everyday ingredients. mahirarivers reports on why caviar, truffles, uni, and rare Japanese beef suddenly seem so popular
Luxury ingredients and supplemental charges are becoming increasingly popular at New York City’s restaurants. Animation: Allie Sullberg Brian Cueto has his iPhone in hand, ready to snap a photo of something delicious. He is sitting at a table at LittleMad, a Korean French restaurant in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood, when the Mad Toast arrives. “The first time I had it was like, Wow, it’s amazing,” says Cueto, a software engineer who frequently posts about restaurants on TikTok.
Luxury goods are, by definition, inessential and difficult to obtain. As a result, luxury means expensive. Once, uni hand-harvested from the icy seas near Hokkaido was reserved for diners who could shell out eye-watering amounts of money for a seat at an exclusive sushi counter. Real sturgeon caviar, truffles from Alba, and Wagyu beef bred in Japan were similarly limited and costly.
Now would be a good time to mention food costs, because the proliferation of luxury ingredients and supplements has as much to do with diners’ tastes as it does with the bottom line. Many restaurants are still compensating for the financial hardship of the past two years, not to mention ongoing supply-chain issues and inflation. One way to keep up with runaway costs is to charge more.
Doing it correctly might mean selling a few more margin-friendly cocktails and resorting to some creative budgeting. Sakaeda and his partners at Nami Nori see luxury ingredients and supplements as an amenity that enhances the experience, so they don’t mark them up as much as they probably could. “These are ways that we can get people into the restaurant and get them excited about what we’re doing,” he explains.