la.foodblogging

As I have said before, I get a lot of PR emails for restaurants and events around town. I’m not special, most foodbloggers are on the same lists I am.

One email did catch my eye this week. From a PR company, I got a cleverly titled email, “Recession Concessions at Table 8″. Hm, sounds enticing, Table 8 is certainly one of the more talked about restaurants in Los Angeles. The “Recession Concession” is priced at $38 and looking at the options, it is a reduction of Table 8’s normal prices, but is it prudent financial advice to go drop $100 for two (after tax and tip) if you are facing tough financial times? Isn’t this what got us into financial trouble in the first place? Spending more than we should?

In fairness to Table 8, here is what they are offering (Monday through Friday only)

Appetizers
(choose one)

local baby oak lettuces with feta, roasted beets, sweet onions and black olive oil
pan-roasted baby broccoli with confit potatoes, flaked salt cod and parsley hollandaise
kobe beef carpaccio with celery root salad, treviso and truffle aioli

Entrees
(choose one)

grilled baby chicken on short rib hash and cipollini onion jus
olive oil poached sea trout with shaved artichoke salad and caramelized onion mash
estancia grass fed rib eye with pea tendrils, potato puree, roasted baby carrots and pearl onions

Desserts
(choose one)

vanilla panna cotta with honeyed blueberries
dulce de leche chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream

Note that this doesn’t include wine, cocktails or sparkling water (maybe cut those out in order to pay your mortgage?)

Here is my la.foodblogging Recession Concession advice. Rather than dropping $100 for lettuce and beet salad, grilled baby chicken and vanilla panna cotta, head over to Zankou. Split a half chicken with pickled turnips, hummous and pita for under $10 then go splurge on dessert for another $5 at Scoops. (That’s a dinner for two!)

Money “saved”? $85!

So where would your Recession Concession meal be? How much would you spend? Are you cutting back on eating out?

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.