I’ll take "what is a cheaper bird?"for $4.98 at Sam’s Club, Mr. Trebek.
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Yikes. Yeah, the rotisseries birds at MB are $6.99, I think. But then I read this:
:Mr. Hivernat offers his staff paid time off and health insurance benefits and employs a salaried dishwasher, and insisted the chicken was “the right price” once inflation, labor, loans and his $9,000 monthly rent was considered. He earns about $4 in profit from a $40 half chicken."
NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH rent for his space. 
But still - a lot of additional costs on him, so I guess I understand the pricing (and it IS New York, after all). Then again, someone else interviewed has a chicken place in Bushwick, selling a half chicken for $14.50 + tax. BUT it says “On an average weekday, he sells about 250 birds and earns about $4 in profit from each half-chicken sale — roughly the same as that of Gigi’s. His rent, $8,000 per month, is comparable to Gigi’s, too. But it’s a different business model, he pointed out. “They use better-quality chickens,” he said. “I don’t disagree with the price they’re charging because of all the different things that they have to pay for.””
And a comment on the article says a LOT about the Councilman’s post:
"Was just on the council man’s mom’s site. She owns a bakery in Brooklyn selling a 9 inch apple pie for $65. That’s a counter service take home item with lower associated overhead. "
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It’s a nice restaurant, in the NYC area, in 2026. How is $40 for an entree even a little bit surprising in this context?
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Who’s surprised?
The writer and hundreds of people who’ve left comments on the article about how enraged they are?
Yes, many of whom seem to live in the city, and still find it baffling 
" “$40 half chicken at a wine bar? Really?” wrote New York City Councilman Chi Ossé on Thursday in an Instagram post that appeared to call out the new restaurant, which is not in his district.
It set off a firestorm in the comments among restaurant operators, diners and opinionated bystanders about whether that was indeed affordable for New York, or if it was an instance of egregious price gouging. The Gigi’s chicken is just the latest flashpoint in a continuing debate about the price of dining out in the city."
It’s funny to ask whether it’s “affordable.” Clearly not, by any rational definition of what constitutes affordability. The real question is whether it’s market price, and I’d say that at this point, unfortunately, it very much is.
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I wouldn’t pay $38 for a half chicken, sides-n-sauces. That said, I also have never liked Costco, Sams, Kroger, or any other grocery-chain type of RC.
Compared to restaurant RCs, where I’ve never had one I didn’t like, the grocery version all seem bland, overcooked, and have a weird almost powdery texture [esp. breast/wing]. Even when I’ve gotten one they’ve just packaged.
I wouldn’t complain about paying Mr. Cha his $14.50, though. Although a DIY half chicken would be about $4.00 plus whatever the propane and wood chips cost (I like a bit of pear- or apple-hickory smoke), and it’s easy enough to do.
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I feel like you’re drawing a comparison between two totally different things here. In a restaurant you’re not just buying a plate of chicken. You’re buying table space, ambiance, at least parts of service, the cooks’ time to prepare the chicken, etc.
If not chicken, what kind of entree in a “nice” restaurant would you pay $38 for? Or, perhaps a better way to phrase it: If you paid $38, what kind of entree would make you feel that you’d received a reasonable value?
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Mind you, I’ve only ever had RC from Wegmans and Sam’s Club, but that hasn’t been my experience at all, especially with Sam’s Club: well-seasoned, with breasts that stay juicy for days
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The only time I paid even close to that was at Vernick Food & Drink, where half a chicken costs $34. And it’s fantastic.
I visited Vernick about a decade ago and recall it being excellent.
In Boston currently, I’d say that $30-$35 is probably what you’re looking at, average, for the chicken entree at a “nice” restaurant. (I.e. something moderately upscale.) Fish, a few dollars more. Beef, $50+.
It’s extremely rare for me to order any kind of chicken dish at a restaurant. At those prices, I’d prefer something slightly more adventurous.
But everything Greg Vernick makes is fantastic.
Agree they are not the same sorts of things, and I wasn’t trying to equate a home-cooked cost to restaurant-cooked costs; just added the $4 home cook as a variable along the way from the $40 half chicken to the $14 half chicken to the home $4-ish half chicken.
I don’t know. I eat out so seldomly anymore. I never minded paying $40 (or $80) for a good steak or seafood meal, but chicken is generally cheaper than most beef or seafood entrees. And of course my brain’s price comparator is stuck back 20 or more years ago…
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There’s a good restaurant not far from me with a neighborhood vibe, if not prices (it’s definitely a splurge for me), where dinner mains currently range from a burger and fries and pasta at the low end ($25 and $33) to a ribeye and double-cut pork chop at the high end ($55 and $50). Their half chicken with sides is $44.
At $4, aside from restaurant overhead (and varying costs depending on the labor model), I assume the quality of the chicken in your home-cooked example is more equivalent to the $14.50 meal than to the $40 meal, given what the restarauteur serving the former said about the latter.
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Maybe I’m getting old and grumpy, but shouldn’t cheese, at the very least, be part of “all the fixin’s” for a $25 burger???
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So “all the fixins” is a blatant lie.
Roy Rogers veteran here! And “the fixin’s” there were lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard and mayo. Cheese is extra. Cheese is always extra.
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Definitely agreed that cheese isn’t usual fixin’s! But for $25 … I want cheese. And throw on some of that bacon too.
I’ll take the excellent double bacon cheeborger with fries lunch special for $7.50 at a local joint.
