#ryansutton

I'll be publishing a comprehensive(ish) guide to NYC Dover sole prices in the next hour or so. 

(A previous version of this post reported that the price might have reached $155 in early 2007 prior to the onset of the Great Recession. Dino Lavorini, GM of The Modern, couldn't find any menu higher than $138 that year. Of course, black truffle season could have accounted for an outlier price). 

The Inn at Little Washington, whose fire-themed website inadvertently evokes an apocalyptic conflagration, increased the price of its set menu in April by $10. That means the six-course tasting is now $158 per person Mondays through Thursdays, $168 on Fridays and $188 on Saturdays. This is a relatively modest hike, considering that Patrick O'Connell's critically acclaimed restaurant in the Virginia countryside wasn't charging too much less ($138-$168) back in 2006. More recently, Next Restaurant in Chicago (by Alinea's Nick Kokonas and Grant Achatz) has garnered attention for using a similar demand-based policy of charging different prices for different days of the week -- The Inn has been doing it for much longer. Chefs are sometimes hesitant to adopt this scheme for fear of skewing the value equation. At The Inn, a couple having dinner on Friday will pay $60 more than a couple on Monday even though the same menu is served. Will the Friday couple feel cheated? My guess is no, because if you click through to the online reservations, weekends are still (relatively) booked up, which means guests are finding value in the higher price. Such is the invisible hand of capitalism. NICE WORK. Just the same, the most booked day of the week this summer is Tuesday, which means the effort to attract mid-week couples at a lower price is working as well. I've never been, but my friends who've dined here would rate the restaurant as a BUY. 

Empellon, Alex Stupak's (ambitious) Mexican joint in Manhattan's West Village, has cut the price of its tacos to $12. They previously cost $16-$17, a HIGH starting price point for what many consider to be snack food. Diners now get two instead of three tacos as part of the price drop. This is a GOOD MOVE that lets guests sample more of the menu without committing to a de facto "taco dinner." Single tacos for $5 are still available in the after-hours on weekends. BUY, SELL, or HOLD? I'll have more to say about that soon. Shooting from the hip, Dos Caminos probably has the highest starting price points for tacos in NYC these days, at $16-$18 for the meat-stuffed morsels. (Update: as Marc Shepard informed me, the $5 price drop is mathematically more per taco).  

File under: tiny hikes. Michael White's excellent Ai Fiori has raised the price of its set menu to $84, up five bucks from $79. The half-year-old Mediterranean restaurant in NYC's Setai Hotel also increased the price of lunch three bucks to $38. The butter poached lobster, beloved by Steve Cuozzo of the New York Post, will bring dinner to $89 per person as it carries a $5 supplement. The a la carte version of the dish, at $39, is now two dollars more than it used to be (previously: $37). Definitely still a STRONG BUY given the quality of the Southern French and Italian Fare. I awarded THREE STARS in my review. 

-- Eleven Madison Park's Will Guidara tells me via e-mail. He's been charging $125 for four courses since last autumn, the second highest 3-5 course menu in the city, according to The Price Hike. The menu is definitely still a BUY given the quality of Daniel Humm's Michelin-starred fare. Price stability is important for consumer confidence as it reaffirms the purchasing power of the dollar, though this is obviously at an extremely micro-level. Recall that EMP was named America's top restaurant by the James Beard Foundation Awards this week. Earlier in April, it moved up to 24 from 50 on the list of World's Best restaurants. 

the lion, john delucie's celebrity hangout, has increased the price of its cote de boeuf to $120, up from $105 earlier in 2011 and up from $98 last summer, an overall hike of 22%. the lion's version is now more expensive than the same famous cut at minetta tavern, which costs $118 (up 31% from $90 in the spring of 2009). the minetta steak was praised by new york times critic frank bruni as a "sublime hunk of glorious meat that you dream about hours later." it comes with marrow bones. when i reviewed the lion, i wondered whether the cote de boeuf was "medium rare, as requested or medium? hard to tell given such textureless meat and low lighting." it comes with no marrow bones. i'll issue a SELL on the lion. 

adjusted for inflation, the six-course, $68 menu from 1999 would be $91.21 in 2011, making the current $175 menu a 157% actual hike, or a 92% if you take inflation into account.