WASHINGTON — As if food and drink isn’t expensive enough in the D.C. area already, a new steakhouse in the District is offering a $125 martini. But maybe you can’t blame it — in the latest evidence that some people may just have too much money, the martinis are selling.
Claudia’s Steakhouse tells the Washington City Paper that it has sold at least seven of the Claudia’s Martini since they opened last month at 15th and K Streets in Northwest.
It costs so much, Beverage Director David Bowen tells the City Paper, because it’s made with Nolet’s Reserve Dry gin, which is made with the notoriously expensive saffron (as are the bitters in the drink). It costs $700 a bottle and only 500 bottles are made a year. Bowen says the restaurant doesn’t actually make a whole lot of money on the Claudia’s because it’s so expensive to make.
OK, that sounds reasonable from the bar’s point of view. Here comes the outrageous part: Bowen says the drink came about at the behest of a customer who told him the menu was “too cheap.” And while that guy knew his gin, Bowen says, “We did have a few guests that ordered it that had never had gin in their lives. They just had to see what a $125 drink tastes like.”
And Bowen’s bar also includes a $4,800 bottle of cognac, as well as another that runs $2,800. It hasn’t sold any, Bowen says, but it has it on hand to cater to that one person who wants it — a statement which presumes that such people exist.
“They’re not only just going to buy that,” Bowens says. “They’re probably going to have a $1,000 dinner with it.”
No comment.
