When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
food / travel

Snob's Privilege: On Whining About The Price Of A Fancy Restaurant

Complaining out loud (and on social media) about the high prices at exclusive restaurants is the epitome of upper class lack of self-awareness. A VIP case study in Bogota.

Exclusive in Bogota
Exclusive in Bogota
Juan Lopez de Mesa Samudio

BOGOTÁ — Which came first, snobs or restaurants for snobs?

This fundamental question reemerged the other day in Colombia when one of our more high-born journalists, Daniel Samper Ospina (nephew of former President Ernesto Samper), tweeted his outrage about a recent restaurant bill. He urged "the people" to rise up against the scandalous prices certain establishments charge out of sheer snobbery. Who could possibly justify, he asked, a restaurant charging him, a simple human being, an ordinary Colombian if ever there was one, 800,000 pesos ($242) for a dinner for four?

What Samper clearly didn't understand is that the restaurant he complained about exists because of, and for, people precisely like him. He chose to take his guests to dinner there, no doubt fully aware that it was a restaurant with a certain cachet. It is typical of social elites — he and Colombian presenter Julio Sánchez Cristo are perfect examples — to complain chronically and express indignation about the failings of others, which are nothing if not clear mirrors of their own shortcomings.

Though he has made a career of publicly mocking his friends and relatives, Samper Ospina is admittedly amusing. His family is too, and always has been. Who, after all, doesn't laugh every time former President Samper opens his mouth? His nephew's biting wit has given him a privileged position in the world of Colombian press gossip, and as the years go by his words are increasingly venerated by a small but influential part of the urban elite.

So while Samper Ospina is right to say that some restaurants are exorbitantly expensive, he's not the best messenger for this news. In any case, nobody forces Samper Ospina and his fellow clique of city snobs to go to the same two or three restaurants, where they are sure to feel safe and comfortable. The target customer niche, like so many new places in Bogotá, includes those whose social aspirations have demanded such plush eateries. He and people like him foment the demand for these overpriced venues as their need to see and be seen grows ever more insatiable.

The snob, by his nature, wants to have his cake and to eat it too: exclusivity, sumptuous surroundings, beautiful people and the kind of sizzling gossip that ends up in Samper's columns all at a price the snob would like to pay, and not a penny more. The tantrums that follow are no less typical of their delusions.

So the answer to the question is that Samper and his fellow snobs came first, and then the restaurants that cater to their whims. Reap what you sow.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Do We Need Our Parents When We Grow Up? Doubts Of A Young Father

As his son grows older, Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra wonders when a father is no longer necessary.

Do We Need Our Parents When We Grow Up? Doubts Of A Young Father

"Is it true that when I am older I won’t need a papá?," asked the author's son.

Ignacio Pereyra

It’s 2am, on a Wednesday. I am trying to write about anything but Lorenzo (my eldest son), who at four years old is one of the exclusive protagonists of this newsletter.

You see, I have a whole folder full of drafts — all written and ready to go, but not yet published. There’s 30 of them, alternatively titled: “Women who take on tasks because they think they can do them better than men”; “As a father, you’ll always be doing something wrong”; “Friendship between men”; “Impressing everyone”; “Wanderlust, or the crisis of monogamy”, “We do it like this because daddy say so”.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest