I really don't like that they used Joe Beef's name for this kind of restaurant (exclusive, expensive, and pointlessly excessive).
Joe Beef was the definition of a working-class hero: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mckiernan_charles_11E.html
Joe Beef was the definition of a working-class hero: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mckiernan_charles_11E.html
And yes they have some dishes that are excessive, but not all of them . Not everyone wants a Foie Gras Double Down.
You're still rationalizing away the point - that's still quite exclusive in the name of a working class hero. Would a working class person have a few flexible days to schedule eating out? They'd just go to a diner where as soon as they decide they're hungry, they walk in and sit down immediately.
My point is that these were two working class guys that built a successful business, and didn’t set out to create the world’s greatest restaurant with insatiable demand.
The name was selected as a tribute to a good man, must they now change the name once they’ve become a global culinary icon? I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that successful restaurants can’t be tributes to working class heroes.
Its also very presumptuous to project your own biases into what and where a working class person will eat or what’s important to them.
There are plenty of preparations and sources that make it at best breaking even on a $40 fish course (restaurants, especially higher end ones, often don't make anything much on entrees). So you may not feel it is good value for money, but others may well disagree - without being pretentious.
After all, fish isn't in any sense fungible. Even with the same fish, "Joe brought this in fresh today" and "I got it from Sysco" can be very different experiences.
There is after all long distance between places that employ careful sourcing and skilled labor intensive techniques, to those with 5 figure wine lists that rely on wall st. and biglaw types to survive. You can't discern them on $/plate alone.
Now $400 entrees ... you probably have something there.
I've never seen a $400 scam entree of inflated caviar and truffle pricing but I'm sure they exist like Nello's famous 'daily special' they push on unsuspecting marks without telling you the price.
Good fish places in Canada that are small restaurants / non-chains like Joso’s or Chiado in Toronto have fish entrees that range from CAD $40-$55 or even more when looking at market price fish flown in from Europe. A steakhouse like Joe’s (Chicago) or Morton’s charges USD $50 for Dover sole.
Price doesn’t imply pretention, it’s expensive to run a small restaurant, and they seem to be doing fine charging what they are.
There’s also Red Lobster or Joey’s Only which seem to do okay selling edible fish and seafood for a more affordable price with near zero pretention.
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EDIT: I'm not deleting this, it's great, and on topic for what we're talking about.
> But how could such an establishment be run at a profit, when salaries had to be paid to some ten employees and board and lodging supplied free to many clients? Joe Beef seems in fact to have taken advantage of his lengthy service in the British army. Thus, as early as 1868 his status as an army veteran had exempted him from the heavy expense of obtaining an innkeeper’s licence. In addition, he managed his business by insisting on the observance of regulations. A client who failed to conform was quickly called to order; if he repeated the offence he was thrown out. But such incidents were rare, for as La Patrie noted, “all the guests in this strange hostelry have the same respect for the owner as the English soldier has for his sergeant.”