I cost $12.10!
  • E.S.
  • I cost $12.10!

I returned today to the scene of the $12.10 tuna melt and ordered another—because hey, I do love a tuna melt.

Also, I needed some more information.

The place: Elliott Bay Cafe. The sandwich was still $12.10. Today it did not come with salad (or any of the garnishes—tiny gold flecks! booze and a cab voucher! a $10 bill!—that you all suggested would justify its price).

The bread, I was told, is Italian, exact bakery provenance unknown. The cheese: American cheddar, provenance also unknown. The tuna: St. Jude's Albacore, canned by a local Seattle family.

Here is what the inside of the sandwich looked like. As you can see, it was thoughtfully made tuna, with capers, red onion, and herbs mixed in. It tasted fine, but not $12.10 fine.

I do love that the Elliott Bay Cafe exists. It's a great place to work and read and eat. I also love that it offers a tuna melt, because tuna melts are supremely satisfying and oddly hard to find. But Elliott Bay Cafe's tuna melt seems to be caught in some weird vortex of food price inflation that is greater than any the rest of the country is experiencing. Is this what Ron Paul meant by warning us about the dangers of going off the gold standard?