compete on design - hamburger division

Dining out on the world's priciest
burger
By Simon English in New York
(Filed: 15/01/2003)

Ordering the most expensive hamburger in the
world is a bit like going for that fourth
vodka and
tonic. No one really thinks you should, but
everyone
is egging you on anyway.

As the rest of the world struggles with hazy
resolutions to lose weight, a New York
restaurant
has decided to launch a burger costing $41.
That's
about £27 before you have paid tax or a tip.

The Old Homestead in Manhattan's meat
packing
district was long renowned as one of the
best steak
houses in town. It has just broken a
135-year-old
rule by putting a burger on the menu.

Billed as the world's most decadent burger,
it
weighs in at 1lb 4 oz and comes with fries
that
redefine the word gratuitous.

The burger is made from the finest Kobe beef
imported from Japan, where the cows are
raised on
beer and given daily massages to make sure
they
are truly succulent.

Marc Sherry, the restaurant owner, said:
"This is not
about price. This is an event." A cardiac
event,
perhaps.

In fat conscious New York, where lunch often
consists of water and half a salad, this
meal is about
the biggest affront imaginable to America's
health
watchers.

It is also seriously at odds with wider
economic
realities. The big burger chains are
struggling to
make a profit and engaging in a price war
that
means you can now get a Whopper from Burger
King
for 99 cents.

Yet business is booming at Old Homestead
after a
week of the new offering. The burgers are
selling
out daily.

Although the burger is delicious, it is
impossible to
eat a whole one without feeling slightly
ill. Your body
wants you to know that it doesn't like what
you just
did to it.

But that comes later. The meat really does
melt in
the mouth, and even our vegetarian
photographer
was moved to have a nibble. The end effect
is that
you feel as if you have been kissed by a
beautiful
stranger who has then punched you in the
stomach.

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