Some serious eating went down in NYC last Wednesday at Nello Balan’s Madison Avenue eatery, cleverly titled Nello. In addition to his pending deal to acquire the Nets, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, he garnered attention simply for flexing his fine dining muscle–in the form of a $19,000 cozy afternoon meal. One might wonder, what adds up to a lunch just shy of 20k? Let’s break it down:
$825 for truffle tagliolini (tagliolini is a form of egg noodle)
$600 for four orders of truffle carpaccio (raw meat/fish, thinly sliced)
$210 for three orders of veal chops with mushrooms (bambi alla funghi)
$72 for six large waters (…..self explanatory)
$15 for a bowl of chicken soup (“….”)
$5,000 for a bottle of vintage 1998 Chateau Petrus (from a prime French vineyard, though I can’t quite grasp 1998 as vintage!)
$3,600 for two bottles of 2002 Montrachet Latour (a French Burgundy from the Cote D’Or)
And what really caught my eye:
$3,750 in tips.
Aside from seriously moving to NYC and becoming a waitress at this place, I’m also pondering how the details of this man’s modest meal were leaked to the media. Surely, Balan himself, one of NYC’s most desperate publicity seekers couldn’t be behind it. After all, he should be more than aware that luring paparazzi and leaking patron information are hardly behaviors associated with nobility.
