There are a lot of things in life you might expect to cost $150,000 — just probably not a Thanksgiving dinner.
And yet, that’s exactly what Old Homestead, a New York City steakhouse, is offering this year with what it bills as the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner in history, topping the record set by the $76,000 dinner the restaurant offered last year.
This year’s dinner, which at a total price of $150,000 is nearly three times more than the average U.S. household income, comes complete with all of the world’s finest ingredients, as well as keys to a 2018 Maserati Levante nestled inside a $135-per-pound free-range, organic turkey sprinkled with gold flakes.
“That’s what this is all about: Opulence,” Old Homestead co-owner Marc Sherry told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive preview of the meal. “We source things from all over the world — Japan, Ukraine, Italy, the Middle East.”
In fact, a gold-dusted, Maserati-stuffed Turkey is really just the beginning of the feast that feeds 12. The dinner also boasts stuffing comprised of $75 sourdough bread from the U.K., and $425-per-pound imported Japanese pork mixed with $2,500-per-pound white truffles. King oysters at $100 a pop come drizzled with an Opus One mignonette.
Even normally understated sides are ratcheted up. Mashed potatoes are made just a bit richer with $325-per-pound white cheddar cheese. Butternut squash comes topped with $1,600-an-ounce black caviar sourced from the Caspian Sea. The salad comes topped with Japanese Prized Wagyu beef that costs $550 per pound.
And then there’s the gravy.
“This is not your typical grandmother’s gravy,” a smiling Sherry added as he slowly pours a healthy splash from a $3,300 bottle of special reserve Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. “I like my gravy heavy with bourbon, but at this price it’s all I can afford to pour.”
The meal, which costs 2,600 times more than the average Thanksgiving dinner, wraps up with mixed berries and a sabayon cream sauce infused with 1968 Crystal champagne. But as the Maserati keys stuffed inside poultry might indicate, the extravagance doesn’t end with the meal.
“Along with the [Thanksgiving dinner] package comes a great list of non-edible amenities,” Sherry said. Among them are a $15,000 Black Friday shopping spree at iconic Manhattan retailers, concert tickets to a Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden and a weekend getaway at the Poconos Cove Haven Resort, among other perks.
But for all the opulence and gaudiness that might make dismissing a $150,000 dinner as over-the-top pretentiousness, Sherry admitted that the experience his restaurant’s team crafted for his restaurant’s 150th anniversary does indeed hold a special place in his heart.