FacebookA restaurant in Chicago added a grilled cheese sandwich to its menu called the "Zillion Dollar Grilled Cheese." Since zillion is not a real number, it only costs $100. That's one hundred dollars, for one grilled cheese sandwich.
Though let's get this out of the way right now: It's not a real cheese sandwich. It's actually just a sandwich-sandwich. A cheese sandwich is just cheese and bread, with maybe one additional ingredient. This has meat and vegetables and egg and mother-effing foie gras.
The restaurant is Deca Restaurant + Bar, located in the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, and their "grilled cheese" is only on the menu for April. In a press release announcing the "Zillion Dollar ‘Grilled Cheese,'" they explain that it "is not your childhood classic."
The release reads like #FoodPorn, mostly because everything sounds weirdly erotic.
"enveloped in artisan country sourdough bread"
"smothered in melting 40-year aged Wisconsin cheddar infused with 24K gold flakes"
"lightly drizzled with 100-year-old aged balsamic vinegar"
The other ingredients include:
- Ellis Family Farms heirloom tomatoes
- Oregon perigord white truffle aioli
- Hudson Valley foie sras
- A sunny side up duck egg
There's also this paragraph about the pigs who become the ham:
Thinly sliced black Iberico ham, sourced from pigs living primarily in the south of Spain, allowed to roam free in the pasture eating acorns until they are of proper size. They are then salted and air-dried for six weeks followed by a minimum curing process of 12 months.
Ummm, can we subscribe to these pigs' GOOP lifestyle newsletter? Because summering in the south of Spain and eating all natural, locally grown, organic acorns sounds absolutely fabulous.
The sandwich is served with "a skillet of lobster mac." A host for the restaurant told DNAinfo Chicago, "Looking at how ridiculously extravagant some of these items are, $100 might actually be a steal on this thing." Uh, shut up. It's a sandwich.