A Debate Finally Settled! The $635 Shot
Last year for my birthday, Maria took me out to an amazing brazilian restaurant called Fogo de Chão. Fogo de Chão is a Brazilian Churrascaria or “Steakhouse”. If you have never been to a real churrascaria I highly recommend it! Basically at a churrascaria you are seated and able to go to a salad bar type of station where you can get salad (obviously) as well as beans, rice, veggies and anything you would eat that is NOT meat. When you sit back down you are given a two-sided disc, which looks like a coaster for your drink. One side is green, one side is red. When you place your disc with the green side facing up, that’s basically a “green light” to keep the food coming. Meats including steaks, chicken, sirloin… heck, just about any meat you can think of is served throughout the dinner. After you sit down the waiters walk around to all tables carrying skewers of meats. If your card is facing green, they will come over and ask if you like what they have to offer. You decide, you eat and you definitely enjoy! If you begin to get full or need to slow down, simply turn the card over to the red side and give the waiters the “red light” to stop visiting you. Once you turn it back over, green, time to eat more!
The dinner that night at Fogo de Chão was incredible! We had invited my good friend Carlos to go with us. Unfortunately his wife, Vange, was unable to join us… but we said we would try again another time! All three of us, Maria, Carlos and myself were very impressed with the quality of the food and with Carlos and myself being Capoeiristas, we’re well familiar with Brazilian Churrascaria’s all over the country and this one by far was one of the best. You did pay for it however, but when you figure out how much of the high quality meats and sides that you actually eat, it can be well worth it.
Now onto the debate! While we were at Fogo de Chão, I took a look at the wine list and t also included a fine selection of Courvoisiers. The one in particular that caught my attention was the listing that read the following: “L’Esprit de Courvoisier (1 oz.)…. 635.00″. I looked at Maria and showed her the listing and asked, “Is this for real? That’s a SHOT! $635 for a SHOT!” I then showed it to Carlos. “What! What the… Cheese and RICE!” (as Carlos often likes to say) We were all floored by the price and for the posterity of the moment I took a snapshot with my camera. A few weeks later we went out with Carlos, Vange and another couple (David and Victoria) and started to talk about how great the dinner at Fogo was. I then mentioned the crazy price of the single shot of Courvoisier. David said, “Nah, that’s gotta be per bottle.” I took out my phone, found the pic, and said check this out. It clearly says “1 oz.” The debate went on for a little while and I backed off the ridiculous topic and we went dancing.
The other day I was going through my phone photos and since my birthday is coming up, I was reminded of Fogo de Chão and that crazy photo I took. I decided to take a closer look at it and try to google the name of the Courvoisier. I put “L’Esprit de Courvoisier” into google and ended up with enough information to confirm that YES, a SINGLE SHOT of L’Esprit de Courvoisier is actually $635 at Fogo de Chão! While I was searching, I found a site as well as some others confirming the cost of L’Esprit de Courvoisier to be around $5,000 per bottle. It’s described as:
L’Esprit de Courvoisier is one of the most exquisite, most rare and most expansive cognacs in the world. Obtained with part of the reserve from Le Paradis cellar at the Courvoisier Chateau, this unique blend contains cognacs that date back as far as napoleon I. The youngest cognac in the blend is over 70 years old. Housed in hand-cut Lalique crystal decanters, it is a cognac that is beyond compare.’
So with the cost of a bottle being around $5,000, and reading about how old and refined it is, it’s easy to understand why it’s so expensive… How exactly, or why exactly the restaurant carries this rare blend and if they actually serve it has yet to be answered. The offical answer to the debate, however, has been epically proven!
Lancaster, PA
