Yahoo Finance This $150,000 Thanksgiving dinner is the world’s most expensive
There are a lot of things in life you might expect to cost $150,000 — just probably not a Thanksgiving dinner.
And yet, that’s exactly what Old Homestead, a New York City steakhouse, is offering this year with what it bills as the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner in history, topping the record set by the $76,000 dinner the restaurant offered last year.
This year’s dinner, which at a total price of $150,000 is nearly three times more than the average U.S. household income, comes complete with all of the world’s finest ingredients, as well as keys to a 2018 Maserati Levante nestled inside a $135-per-pound free-range, organic turkey sprinkled with gold flakes.
“That’s what this is all about: Opulence,” Old Homestead co-owner Marc Sherry told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive preview of the meal. “We source things from all over the world — Japan, Ukraine, Italy, the Middle East.”
In fact, a gold-dusted, Maserati-stuffed Turkey is really just the beginning of the feast that feeds 12. The dinner also boasts stuffing comprised of $75 sourdough bread from the U.K., and $425-per-pound imported Japanese pork mixed with $2,500-per-pound white truffles. King oysters at $100 a pop come drizzled with an Opus One mignonette.
Even normally understated sides are ratcheted up. Mashed potatoes are made just a bit richer with $325-per-pound white cheddar cheese. Butternut squash comes topped with $1,600-an-ounce black caviar sourced from the Caspian Sea. The salad comes topped with Japanese Prized Wagyu beef that costs $550 per pound.
And then there’s the gravy.
“This is not your typical grandmother’s gravy,” a smiling Sherry added as he slowly pours a healthy splash from a $3,300 bottle of special reserve Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. “I like my gravy heavy with bourbon, but at this price it’s all I can afford to pour.”
The meal, which costs 2,600 times more than the average Thanksgiving dinner, wraps up with mixed berries and a sabayon cream sauce infused with 1968 Crystal champagne. But as the Maserati keys stuffed inside poultry might indicate, the extravagance doesn’t end with the meal.
“Along with the [Thanksgiving dinner] package comes a great list of non-edible amenities,” Sherry said. Among them are a $15,000 Black Friday shopping spree at iconic Manhattan retailers, concert tickets to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden and a weekend getaway at the Poconos Cove Haven Resort, among other perks.
But for all the opulence and gaudiness that might make dismissing a $150,000 dinner as over-the-top pretentiousness, Sherry admitted that the experience his restaurant’s team crafted for his restaurant’s 150th anniversary does indeed hold a special place in his heart.
“We do it for the creativity,” he said. “We do it for the actual priceless faces we see on the people when they get this package.”
As of a day before Thanksgiving, Old Homestead had sold one package it planned to serve at a customer’s house in New Jersey. The dinner has to be paid upfront in cash or certified check, according to Sherry. Last year, Sherry said he was able to sell four dinners at the $76,000 price tag.
“It’s all about having fun and having the greatest Thanksgiving experience of your life,” he said. “This year it just might take a lifetime to pay it off.”
Zack Guzman is a senior writer and on-air reporter covering entrepreneurship, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.
Read more:
Juul surpasses Facebook as fastest startup to reach decacorn status
This startup lets you write a will for free by donating to charity
Joe Camel illustrator: E-cig maker Juul’s marketing ‘seems more egregious’
