USA Today reports that "from Seattle to Houston, Los Angeles to New York, Denver to Chicago, $40 entrees are practically as common as cloth napkins at an increasing number of restaurants. ... and then some. Macaroni and cheese with shaved white truffles sells for $55 at Waverly Inn, the New York hot spot partly owned by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter."

This doesn't seem to have hit Birmingham too hard, at least not yet. Plaza III has a couple of their larger cuts of steak at the $40 level, but it seems like otherwise the top prices are in the mid-$30s -- and there are still many "bargains" to be had in the low $20s and even in the upper teens.

Speaking of prices, much was made of the $18 burger at a couple of local restaurants in a recent article in the Birmingham News, but how about a $23 PB&J? Check out this post at the blog at Epicurious.com. 

(Oops -- Thanks to "Big Daddy" for pointing out a typo in my original posting -- that's an $18 burger, not an $8 burger.)