Lots of people with high incomes have families.
Some people on this board spend a remarkable amount of money dining out. Whether they’re in the 1% and that’s pocket change or just upper-middle-income working stiffs who spend a large portion of their income on restaurants, who knows? or cares?
Do you have some other plan?
Okay, I know I said I was done, but
And now, for real, I’m outta here.
Wait so now “Upper middle income” is “average Joe scarping by?” Can we stop moving the goal posts to justify the idea that $400 meals are somehow normal?
A poster said this already, but it’s fine if FTC leans extremely wealthy. But there’s nothing normal about spending $400 on meals for ONE person. And that’s fine! Good for all of you. But this moving the goal posts is just getting illogical at this point.
If you asked a simple question and instead got a response attacking you on things totally not related the question asked, and instead a personal diatribe, I think you would feel different.
My response will be forthcoming to it. There are about a million things to touch on.
This is true. And people should stop pretending that it’s not.
A $400+ per person meal is a once maybe twice a year splurge for me and the wife. Like Hayato for our birthday anniversary. We do spend a lot of money on food in general and likely more than the average family of four. We spend a few extra bucks on better produce at FM, better meat at Bristol or WF, good cheese and wine, hazy IPAs, etc… when we could probably save a decent amount of money shopping more at Costco, Stater Bros, Albertsons and TJ. But as others have mentioned food is a hobby. We don’t play golf, collect random things, smoke cigars, have season tickets to Dodgers or many other hobbies my friends have.
I think everyone here is in agreement it’s not normal but that doesn’t negate the fact that there is a market for it.
Not based on the comments in the other thread. Much disagreement on it actually.
THANK YOU. This was going to be a much larger point of my response to the first post, but it’s amazing to see the offense taken to… questioning how one can justify $400 meals for a person as normal. For the 10th time, there is nothing wrong with it! It’s great. But it is not normal even for the biggest food enthusiast unless there’s a major income disparity in TODAY’S society.
I’m sure the meal at this place is great, that doesn’t change the fact that is an absurdly once in a lifetime expensive meal for anyone living middle class.
Sounds about right! I totally get getting the best ingredients at Bristol etc and if food is your main hobby. But yeah, once MAYBE twice a year would be enough.
Even one $400 meal would probably be it for me for the year. otherwise there are a lot of priorities I need to focus on and invest for me and my families future.
But even imo hobbies like golf, season tickets to Dodgers games etc are just not things my friends and coworkers are able to do from a lifestyle perspective. A game to the Dodgers? Yeah that’d be amazing, but season tickets are just out of price range.
We are talking sushi restaurants that are doing maybe 30 40 covers a night MAX if they are doing 3 turns. restaurants like this are very special occasion places and a (very) limited resource. IMO it’s even more important that they get reviewed well because of that price.
Plenty of places at all budget lvl’s get reviewed here. If you want to say that a restaurant isn’t delivering value for the money, that’s a fair question (i’ve been wondering that about Funke’s new place but it looks good) but It’s pretty rude IMO to talk about how other people spend their money.
Luckily for people who can afford it and want to, they don’t have to justify shit to anyone. If my stock options are ever worth much, I’ll be one of them.
How much do we get to spend per person without being judged?
I’m talking about the restaurant charging that amount, which is an inordinately massive price for one person. That is a normal reaction anyone would have as the last 2 posters have stated above.
The customer can spend $1,000 for all I care, good for them! Some I suppose are feeling attacked because I question the price range the RESTAURANT decided to put it at. NOT the customer.
I am realizing now that this restaurant was not made for average (income wise) people to eat at. My question was simply: “Does this restaurant have any other price options?” and instead was met with personal attacks as if my question was somehow a personal attack on them as a person and lifestyle. It was a simple question, Robert!
I totally agree: “Very special occasion”. That’s where the disagreement came in, as people normalized $400 as nothing to even question. And I agree as well they get reviewed, bc a $400 meal better be the best damn meal of my lifetime, you know what I mean?
The only comment I said was that $400 was a lot of money for one person. This never started bc of anyone questioning, “how people spend their money”, it’s a question of the owner deciding the price tag per person and me reacting to that.
If when people review it they say it’s incredible/best thing ever etc, then hopefully they lower their price one day and I can try it. LOL. Or inflation is much less of an issue in 5 years time.
This is a great thread . I’m far from rich but I would do it in a heart beat . And the 400 dollars would just be on the wine. And then to the food .
Off the subject . I live in pristine trout fishing country . Yes I can walk down the street and fly fish . But there is nothing like the guide you pay 300 dollars to for the experience of your life .
Yep, that’s pretty much what I got from your post. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being initially surprised at how much peeps spend on restaurants. It was a little shocking to me when I first joined FTC. But it’s part of the fun of FTC. I like reading about the swanky places peeps go. 
Thank you! I’m glad you read my post correctly. 
Cheers!
Admittedly, I didn’t read the entirety of the other thread, but where did anyone say that it was “normal?”
What I saw was a post about a $400/person restaurant (which is already a thread I’m not going to read too closely), poster BYB making an initial comment that seemed innocuous enough (paraphrasing: “wow, that’s super expensive”) and then, in what seems to be their pattern, escalating and making increasingly inflammatory and breathless comments (many of which were needlessly flagged), other posters making (some of which might have been overly pedantic) comments about why someone (who isn’t a one-percenter or irresponsible) might spend that much $ on food and how a more useful conversation might be questioning whether other restaurants at a lower price point are equally good (it’s kind of economic fact that the luxury market is shockingly resilient), and then BYB (again, in what has become characteristic) then engaging in low-level revisionist history and personal attacks (which, after thread after thread after thread, comes off as disingenuous and tiresome).
But nowhere did I see anyone say that $400/person was “normal.” But, again, I did not read the thread that closely.
With all due respect, you seem to be on this thread solely for the purpose of stirring things up, and I’m not interested.
You could say the same about byb.
@paranoidgarliclover is right. No one used the word normal except for byb.
This is the closest a comment came to “normalizing” $400 meals and really it’s just stating facts. $400 meals exist, and they exist because there is a market.