Would you buy a $60 loaf of bread?

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[music] This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current podcast.

This new bakery in SoHo is serving one loaf of bread for sixty dollars, and it's the only thing on the menu.

Dear New Yorkers, everyone here in Germany is now talking about your sixty-dollar bread. So here in Germany, you can buy this rye bread at almost every corner for a fraction of this price.

This man is a criminal or an evil genius. Actually, he's both, 'cause he would never get away with selling bread for sixty euros in Austria where he's from. But he knows damn well he can get away with that in the US, especially in New York City.

Yes, you heard that right. A bakery in New York City is selling a loaf of sourdough rye bread for sixty, six zero, dollars. The bread and its price tag have become an internet sensation, dividing influencers, bakers, average New Yorkers on whether the bread is worth the price. The bakery is run by an Austrian family that has been in the bread business since nineteen thirty-six, selling the same loaf of bread at their bakery back home in Austria for a fraction of the price. So why the price hike for New York? Is buying this bread just another status symbol? What does sixty-dollar bread say about an economy of haves and have-nots? Elazar Sontag is f- the food critic for The Washington Post. He's in Washington this morning. Elazar, good morning.

Morning. I'm so happy to be here.

I'm really glad to have you here, in part because you have had the bread. What is it like?

I have had the bread. Um, well, I can, I can confirm the, the tab. It is very expensive. Um, it, it does come in at sixty dollars, and I have to say that, you know, even knowing exactly what I was going for when I saw that number come up on the little screen before I tapped my phone, um, you know, it is kind of a, an eyebrow-raising moment. Um, the bread itself is delicious. I think, you know, you'll notice if, if you've been in on this discourse or following this conversation in New York or, you know, internationally, because it's really grown and spread, people aren't really talking about the taste of the bread because, you know, to most people, it's kind of beside the point.

Mm-hmm.

But if what you really are wondering is, is the bread delicious, the answer is yes. Is the bread worth it, I think is a much more complicated question.

And we'll get to that question in a moment. Just describe... Part of it is the experience of going to, to the bakery, right? You said it's like, [chuckles] like an Apple store in some ways.

Yeah. It, it has this very stern but also sort of aspirational feel that I think, you know, will be familiar to anyone who