It’s not made of gold – just eggs, lobster, caviar and a few trimmings.
But an omelet on the menu of a swanky Manhattan hotel will set you back $1,000, plus tip.
The omelet, which debuted May 5 and is billed as the “Zillion Dollar Frittata,” has six eggs, a lobster and – here’s the kicker – 10 ounces of sevruga caviar.
The restaurant pays $65 an ounce for the caviar, according to Norma’s general manager, Steven Pipes.
“Since we knew it was going to be a very expensive dish, we decided to have some fun with it,” Pipes told the News. “It’s not just a gimmick, though. It tastes good.”
Beside the omelet’s entry in the menu is the following message: “Norma dares you to expense this.”
No one has ordered it yet.
A “budget” version of the omelet, containing only one ounce of caviar, sells for $100.
The hotel where this is being served (New York’s Le Parker Meridien Hotel) is across the street from my former employer. Back when I was a law student interviewing at various law firms, my to-be-employer flew me up for interviews and put me up at that hotel. When I arrived, the hotel had overbooked all the regular rooms, so they bumped me up to one of their largest suites (which is all they had open that night, I guess).
I’ve never felt so much like Gordon fuckin’ Gekko. I woke up to a panoramic view of Central Park. It was awesome.
Of course, being the anal moron that I am, I didn’t order breakfast. But there was always an apocryphal law school story about a student who flew up for interviews and took advantage of every service the hotel offered – massages, minibar, room service, the works – running up quite a tab and charging it to their room (and thus to the firm), and in the process losing the job offer. I will bet that the $1,000 omelet gets added to that list in future retellings of the story.
