An article that ran in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times a few days ago caught my eye. The Old Homestead Steak House now offers the "Tri-Beef Burger," which owner Mark Sherry calls, "the Beluga caviar of sandwiches." As the name suggests, it's made of three kinds of beef: Colorado corn-fed beef, free-range Argentine cattle, and Japanese Wagyu cattle that "were raised on soybeans and beer, then bathed in sake and hand-massaged." (I assume the sake bath and massage comes after the cow has been butchered, but the article leaves it open to interpretation.)
The restaurant uses twenty ounces of beef for the burger, which is 5 1/2 inches across and 2 1/2 inches thick. It's fried in grapeseed oil, served on a Brioche bun, and topped with heirloom tomatoes, fancy mushrooms, and "organic microgreens." Blue cheese is a no-cost option. If you want fries, though, that's extra.
Owner Sherry doesn't approve of adding mayo, mustard, or ketchup to his burger. He does offer a chipotle sauce mixed with truffles and champagne if you want an additional topping.
The burger comes with a price tag of $100. The article quotes the owner as saying, "I don't expect any price resistance to this burger. Everybody can afford $100." (Sure, everyone named "Burns," that is.) Surprisingly, that's not even the world's most expensive burger. A restaurant in (surprise!) New York has a $120 burger, but that's stuffed with short ribs foie gras, and truffles. By way of comparison, a Big Mac runs $2.59.
Still, it certainly one-ups the Good Morning Burger.