Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

$100 Golden Doughnut Offered at Williamsburg Eatery

By Savannah Cox | January 5, 2016 4:37pm | Updated on January 5, 2016 6:57pm
 This gold doughnut can be yours for a mere $100.
This gold doughnut can be yours for a mere $100.
View Full Caption
Instagram/Manila Social Club

If you want to get noticed, go for the gold.

Intentionally or not, that seems to be what happened after Williamsburg eatery Manila Social Club decided to offer patrons its "Golden Cristal Ube Donut."

The doughnut — filled with an ube (purple yam) and champagne mousse and festooned with a Cristal-flavored icing — shimmers in 24-carat gold, and can be yours for a mere $100.

Since the restaurant debuted the doughnut on Instagram last week, they've been selling like, well, golden hotcakes.

"I didn’t know people would go and order a dozen [of these] at a time," restaurant owner Björn DelaCruz told First We Feast.

"But then again, it is New York, and there are people willing to put down a grand for a dozen doughnuts," he added.

DelaCruz told the publication that he crafted the Gilded Age treat to celebrate his restaurant's success since opening in April 2015.

"The reason that gold leaf and Cristal were added was because I love all different champagnes," the owner said. "I wanted to add something [to the menu] for the new year to celebrate how long we have been going."

DelaCruz's doughnut is the latest among a spate of otherwise cheap eats whose new, halo-colored hue has garnered high prices and media attention.

In 2007, media outlets around the world clamored to cover the Westin Hotel in New York's $1,000 gold leaf bagel. That same year, Upper East Side restaurant Serendipity 3 received the same treatment when chefs dumped five grams of 24-carat gold into hot chocolate, dotted it with even more gold and expensive chocolate, and slapped on a price of $25,000.