Hold the Truffles

Perhaps it's what the Grey Lady needs to do to attract high-paying ads such as Stuben glass, Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany's — God knows newspapers need all the help they can get these days — but underneath her respectable hard-news headlines, her soft Dining & Wine and Fashion & Style sections might as well carry the subtitle, "All the news about Marie Antoinette".

Case in point is today's piece on Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo where the likes of George Soros, Si Newhouse and the scions of Ferragamo dine:

...starting in November, when fresh black truffles arrive, they can be added to any item at $50 for the first flurry of shavings (subsequent shavings are discounted). White truffles bring any entree price up to $200. “I always cover the top,” Mr. Mania said, adding that at a certain other Italian restaurant, “they give you three slices.”

Not that there have been many takers lately. “Nobody ordered truffles this year,” Mr. Esposito added. “It must be the economy.”

Ah.  No truffles – ?  That must mean the economy's tanking.

Sette Mezzo is apparently known for simple, unremarkable dishes at ~ $35 /entree (the implication is these are diner-prices for the uber-wealthy) and its exclusive clientele, who keep running tabs going so cash-only payments aren't (gasp) exchanged in public.   

Vico, a sister restaurant, is just a bit further up the street and features virtually the same menu at lower prices and — as the owner gently explains, lacks the 'energy' of the power-players who frequent Sette Mezzo.  Guess value is of no importance to those who have so much money they don't like to handle it.

These details are handled by the NYT with just a hint of satire, a whiff as delicate as the truffle shavings described above.  The writer has to maintain journalistic neutrality, sure.  But where, as with the now-infamous article on the perils of squeaking-by on $500k/year in Manhattan, are the quotes from folks outside the rarefied world of fur-coated tutors and $50 black truffle garnishes?  

And, for once, can the Grey Lady's Dining & Wine staff get with the times and deign to investigate 'Cheap-eats' for the rest of us suffering through this Ponziconomy? Or is that for the ruder tastes of writers over at The Post and The Daily News?