Why People In Flyover Country Hate The Coastal Elites

Felix Salmon has a very long post about a restaurant squabble in Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare.  One customer/reviewer got yelled at by the chef, which ruined his wife's experience of the 20-course meal.  After the man wrote up a review in which he described the incident, another restaurant critic made some snooty comments about the first guest.

Mr. Salmon jumps in and points out the chef is a paranoid nut who watched too many reruns of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode (ok, I made up the part about Seinfeld, it just seemed appropriate).  He goes on to point out the obvious, that $165 per person for a meal, not including tips or drinks, is absurdly expensive, no matter how wonderful the multitude of courses.  That is one reason why people in the middle of the country resent the coasts.  How can 3 different reporters argue about the rude behavior of a chef who is bringing in that kind of revenue every night, while barely acknowledging how few people in this country could possibly afford such a luxury?  That it is taken by many as a status symbol more than anything else rubs me the wrong way.  Hell, what percentage of New Yorkers could possibly afford such a meal, let alone Ohioans?

Last night, I went in to the nicest restaurant in town, and had a delicious $12.95 8-oz. Prime Rib Dinner with two sides, along with $2 Guinness drafts.  Even with a tab in the $20 range, I felt like I was spending a little too much, given the state of the economy.  I can't imagine dropping over $200 to drink shots of strange food mixes and eat little cup-fulls of stuff I can't identify.  Get off of your high horses you snooty bastards, and come hang with us low people in our dive bars.  Then, you can feel like you are living on the edge, and we'll be able to verify that you are douchebags who make way too much money doing way too little productive human activity.