The year was 1986, and New York’s new Le Bernardin had just received a four-star rating from The New York Times. As I was leaving the restaurant, a gentleman in front of me blurted out, “I would eat here every night if it wasn’t so expensive!”
The cost of the fixed-price, three-course meal back then was $55. The next year it rose to $60. The word “inflation” was on nobody’s mind.
