New York is famous for being oversize: big buildings, big personalities and big price tags. The latest item to fall under the latter category is a martini at the famed Algonquin Hotel.
The Martini on the Rock has one piece of ice — a diamond at the bottom of the glass that puts its price at about $10 000, the New York Daily News reported.
The hotel has yet to receive an order for the drink, but general manager Anthony Melchiorri, told the newspaper that he hopes would-be grooms would use the costly cocktail to pop the question.
The hotel only asks that they place their drink orders three days in advance so the hotel’s jeweler can come up with the rock.
The size and quality of the diamond determines the ultimate price of the martini, which is the hotel’s signature drink.
The Algonquin is famous in the United States as the site of the Algonquin Round Table, a luncheon gathering of writers after World War I that went on daily for a decade. Among the writers known for their scathing wit even more than their intellectual discussions was Dorothy Parker, whose witticisms included: ”I love a martini — but two at the most. Three, I’m under the table; four, I’m under
the host.”
The Algonquin’s martini is only the latest is pricey menu items in the Big Apple but easily tops the $1 000 frittata at Norma’s in Le Parker Meridien hotel, the $71 hamburger at the Old Homestead and the $1 000-dollar Golden Opulence Sundae at Serendipity 3. – Sapa-DPA