Picture: File Photo
Ben Turner New York: Hugo Hivernat's restaurant was only open for a few days before he got dragged into New York's cost of living row for pricing a half rotisserie chicken at $40.
For some, the cost highlights how dining out has become prohibitively expensive in one of the world's culinary capitals.
But Hivernat insists that steep overheads leave little room for profit.
"We are at the mercy of the affordability crisis," he told AFP at Gigi's, a small, wooden-floored restaurant in a trendy Brooklyn neighborhood.
"Maybe people think we're driving a Porsche in the Hamptons on the weekends with our $40 chicken, but we're like everyone here," Hivernat added, referring to a wealthy beach resort in the New York area.
The cost of living is a worry across the United States and is acutely felt in New York, where leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani was elected largely on promises to counter the problem.
Its restaurants are not immune to inflation, from operating costs to wholesale food prices.
Menu prices in the city rose by 43.6 percent in the decade up to 2023, compared to 42.8 percent nationally, according to a report this February by the state's fiscal watchdog.
"People have a very strong idea about how much things should cost in the restaurant industry, but they have absolutely no idea what the real cost is," Hivernat said.
The 36-year-old, who co-ran the esteemed Fulgurances restaurant in Paris and New York before opening Gigi's this month, said his pricing falls in line with industry standards.
He explained that 25 percent of the $40 revenue is spent on raw ingredients -- including quality chicken from upstate New York -- and the rest goes toward rent, bills, salaries and other expenses.
Anything left, Hivernat added, helps pay down the half-a-million dollar debt incurred from opening the restaurant.
