Internet Loses It Over $90 Chicken Fingers in The Hamptons A viral video is making its rounds showing an exorbitant price for chicken fingers at a popular restaurant.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It's no secret that The Hamptons is an expensive place to be, as it's often portrayed in pop culture as a summer getaway for glamorous New Yorkers looking for a city escape.
Situated all the way at the end of the Hamptons is Montauk, NY, an old fisherman's village that was once filled with run-down dive bars and local family haunts. But in recent years, establishments have popped up that have made Montauk feel like another haughty Hamptons hotspot.
A viral Instagram video is making the rounds that shows an order of chicken fingers and French fries priced at a truly mind-boggling price: $90 per order.
The tenders in question appear on the menu at the restaurant inside the Montauk Beach House, though they are not featured on the restaurant's online menu.
The video was posted by the popular account @OverheardNewYork on Monday and has since garnered over 1.3 million views, receiving over 27.5 likes and, understandably, a slew of comments from viewers.
"$90 or a small investment in a free-range chicken farm," the caption joked.
The menu reads that the order comes with 16 chicken tenders and French fries, which broken down, would equate to around $5.63 per tender if the fries were not counted.
Yannis Papagianni, food and beverage director of the Montauk Beach House, maintained that the price of the dish is "not even close" to competitors but that the chicken fingers are "an amenity" that the venue offers on certain occasions.
"It's quite a different experience ordering chicken tenders from a to-go spot and eating them by a sidewalk bench (where a similar order will cost you about $34 plus tax and tip) versus having them poolside during a fun pool party," Papagianni told Entrepreneur.
Papagianni explained that the chicken fingers are not on the regular menu but offered for certain "VIP" guests at select times.
Regarding the hype on social media?
"Everyone that actually ordered them did not complain at all (some even ordered seconds) but, then again, Instagram is a funny place," Papagianni joked.
In comparison to other local hotspots like Duryea's Lobster Deck and Bounce Beach Montauk, the price is staggering — Duryea's chicken fingers go for $19 an order, while Bounce is slightly cheaper at $18.
It should be noted, however, that Duryea's sells a $97 Lobster Cobb salad.
Granted, 16 chicken tenders is a hefty (some would say family-sized) portion. Most orders of chicken fingers at restaurants usually have between 4-5 tenders.
Even if the portion size of chicken fingers was tripled, tripling the price of the orders at Duryea's and Bounce would still result in a total price per order that was around 33% less than the infamous $90 order.
"I'd kill and cook a seagull on the beach before I spend $90 for some Tyson chicken tenders," one commenter joked.
"The sad part is people will pay for this insanity," another pointed out.
Others blamed inflation among other food industry issues, though not all were in agreement.
"That is not inflation," one Instagrammer said bluntly. "That is having to make enough revenue in 1/4 of the year to pay 12 months rent."
Many restaurants have been feeling the heat when it comes to chicken dishes, as the chicken supply chain has been hit hard amid the pandemic.
Since chicken tenders require an extensive amount of packaging and processing, they are the most difficult to keep up with in the face of labor shortages and other pandemic-related issues that span the chicken supply chain.
The result has been skyrocketing poultry prices in both grocery stores and restaurants.
But for nearly $100, the chicken fingers have to be pretty clucking good.
