12. Extreme Dining, Entirely On Horseback
It wasn’t enough to be able to eat whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, or even to host a food-eating contest for all of your acquaintances, only to prove how much money you had at your disposal. It wasn’t even enough to throw a lavish dinner party for your dog, who was wearing a $15,000 collar, at a posh restaurant that boasted an indoor lake, complete with swans. No, the quest to be better and more luxurious went to a new extreme with dining when a new food trend arose: eating on horseback.
And why not? Horses have long served as a status symbol throughout much of the world; they have served as means of military might as well as of wealth, as those who own them can afford luxuries like fox hunting or lazy weekends in the countryside.
One robber baron, CKG Billing, took the idea of dining on horseback to an even new extreme when he hosted a dinner party at the ritziest restaurant in New York City, Sherry’s, at Fifth Avenue and Forty-Fourth Street. His 36 guests all ate on horseback, and even the horses were treated to the luxury of having their very own bags of oats to munch on during the gathering. The total bill came out to $50,000 – $1.3 million in today’s money – chump change for a robber baron.