David Brooks whining about the exorbitant cost of airport food (and an EPIC takedown of his tweet)

[Roland99]

Link to tweet

I think we all sense that Mr. Brooks claiming he paid $78 for a burger and fries meal at Newark Airport is quite misleading, but how can we prove it?

I had the time this early Thursday morning and decided to investigate.

Here's what I found.

(thread)


There are 61 restaurants listed on the website for the Newark Liberty International Airport, from the Abruzzo Italian Steakhouse (Gate C70) to Zaro's Bakeshop (B Food Court). I began by trying to match the table, chairs, and floor to likely suspects w/ bar + burgers.


This proved to be tedious because none of the available Yelp or TripAdvisor online images of any of the burger and bar restaurants that were listed had close matches. But I focused on one restaurant in particular and did a deep search: the Budweiser Brewhouse (B1 Pre-Security).


I found an image bank of the restaurant via the Untapped social drinking app (https://untappd.com/v/budweiser-brewhouse/11494574/photos…). There were rough matches for the table, chairs, and floor in Mr. Brooks' photo. The red chairs temporarily threw me off, but it appears there are several chair types here.


Finally, as best as I could determine, there is only one restaurant in all of Newark Airport that uses the tray-and-paper deal for serving food. Short of traveling to the Budweiser Brewhouse for definitive confirmation, I feel it's pretty likely this is where Mr. Brooks ate.


There's a PDF menu available for the Budweiser Brewhouse on http://newarkterminalb.com

There are three types of burgers offered + with sub fries added to any of them, the cost for the food, before tax and tip, is no more than $22.18.

NJ sales tax (6.625%) + tip (20%) = $28.09


I did not find a drink menu for the Budweiser Brewhouse online, but maybe one of you more resourceful folks can do that.

But if we look at the price before tip ($23.64) and subtract from Mr. Brooks' stated total cost, assuming before tip, it comes out to about $54 on drinks.


If this is after tipping at 20% (I'm assuming Mr. Brooks is decent enough to tip at that rate), the amount spent on food and alcohol, inc. tax, is $60.80. Minus the cost of food ($23.64), he spent about $37 on alcohol.


Anyway, I'm happy to be wrong here. If Mr. Brooks wants to post his receipt, given that this was important enough for him to talk about in the first place, I'd welcome the correction.

What say you,
@nytdavidbrooks
?

/thread

Brooks' tweet

Link to tweet

[MagickMuffin]

1. Yeah, I noticed the highball drink

Drinks are expensive. Perhaps poor ol little David Brooks should give water a try. Hellva lot cheaper.

I just never knew David Brooks was teetering on being poor. Welcome to America David Brooks.

[Beetwasher.]

2. It's scotch, and I'm sure its a good one, easily could $50+ for one drink, especially in NY

[MagickMuffin]

4. Not concerned whether I identified the drink properly I do know it's expensive at airports

And no telling how many David Brooks had, I’m guessing a few since he drunk tweeted about his cost.


Boo Hoo David Brooks

[Roland99]

5. There does appear to be an empty glass in the top of the pic

[MagickMuffin]

6. All the responses to David Brooks are pointing out his drinks

Next time David Brooks should stop being dishonest, but he’s made a good living off his lies and deception!

I just need to research how much David Brooks, again poor poor thing. Somebody get him a fainting couch.

The estimated Net Worth of David R Brooks is at least $57.7 Million dollars as of 4 May 2023.

[prodigitalson]

27. he's one of the lucky few who can actually afford to get drunk at an airport

[geardaddy]

23. Especially one as big as that one.

Looks like a large double.

[thesquanderer]

21. What Brooks is really learning here is that he shouldn't tweet when drunk. n/t

[geardaddy]

24. Maybe he can go back to his native Canada.

He's always stuck in my craw.

I'm sad that Mark Shields is gone and Brooks is still here.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. No Dave, corporate greed in America is terrible. The economy is doing the best it can under

the circumstances.

[CaptainTruth]

25. We have a winner!!!

[Ferrets are Cool]

34. ...

[milestogo]

7. I posted this earlier, then realized it was bullshit.

Airport food is expensive, especially if you get drunk while eating a burger and fries.

[Roland99]

10. That's the point. he's being called out on his bs

[Johonny]

8. David Brooks trying to relate to the underclass

By talking about food prices at an airport while being able to afford both eating out and, you know, flying.

His opinions should read; unethical asshole has another opinion.

[blogslug]

15. exactly

[Skittles]

35. especially since he is known to wax nostaligc about CAPITALISM

and he's a REPORTER? He SUCKS.

[maxsolomon]

9. that is a revolting photo, David Brooks

1, i don't need to see your empty ketchup packs laying on top of your fries.
2, you took the lettuce and tomato off your burger? never put it on? eat your vegetables, child.
3, i don't want to see your half-eaten burger with your disgusting teeth marks.

and you're the NYT's patrician conservative?

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Smack down of the Hack Clown! Nt

[JHB]

12. Saddy Meal

Link to tweet

Frances Langum
@bluegal
This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. @Mr_Electrico

Frances Langum is an editor for Crooks and Liars, and "@Mr_Electrico" is her husband, a C&L contributor known just about everywhere except TwiXer as "driftglass". Both are old-school liberal bloggers in the Midwest (blue dots in a sea of red) and for over a decade have hosted The Cornfield Resistance/The Professional Left Podcast.

[not fooled]

22. Hahahahahahahahaha

My first thought on seeing Brook's x-cretion was "What do Driftglass and Blue Gal have to say?" They have been ridiculing Brooks for a long time. They are experts on his BS.

[JHB]

29. Professor of Brooksology

Preaching "the problem is NOT 'both sides', it's REPUBLICANS" (and also "Glenn Greenwald is a foaming nutjob" ) before it was cool.

[Paladin]

13. David Brooks gets paid millions a year to write shit like this.

You want a travesty? THERE'S your fucking travesty.

[enough]

26. ✔️

[Johnny2X2X]

14. Probably cost him nothing

I travel for work, it's great because not one dime is spent of my own money. There is no doubt this was a company credit card he was using, at the very least and expense report if that's how he rolls. No way is this guy spending his own money on meals.

[betsuni]

16. The drinks add up. Somebody recognized him and mentioned "Bobos in Paradise"

and he became triggered, still can't believe "bobos" never really caught on -- what's wrong with you people?

[tenderfoot]

17. Don't Capitalists often state that one should charge what the market will bear?

It's like he's for Socialism or something.

[appleannie1]

18. It was not the burger that cost that much, it was the booze.

I recently had a cheeseburger and fries at New Orlean's airport. It was 14.95. I only drink water. If I had had a soda it would have been $3.00 more. Depending on the alcoholic drink it would have been between 7 to something most of us can't afford for a drink more.

[JHB]

30. That was the breakdown in the tweet in the OP

Don't know exactly what items he ordered, but the maximum for what's shown is $22.18. Add taxes and tip, it's 28 bucks.

Two-thirds of his bill was his choice of drink. But people know drinks add up, so he showcased the burger and fries to pretend he had a point.

[Layzeebeaver]

19. Who know he was such a big tipper?

[republianmushroom]

20. $12 bucks for a Burger King's Whopper No.1 .

[LiberalFighter]

28. Yes! He left off the cost of drinks.

[yellowcanine]

31. Isn't there a Mickey D's there? Course they dont have booze.

[irisblue]

32. The restaurant is dunking on David Brooks now

source-https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2023/09/new-york-times-columnist-goes-viral-with-78-newark-airport-meal-complaint.html

snip-"-Later, on Thursday afternoon, 1911 Smoke House Barbeque, a Trenton restaurant with an outpost at Terminal A in Newark Airport — Smokehouse BBQ — shared the NJ.com mention of Brooks’ viral meal on Facebook.
Looks like someone was knocking back some serious drinks,” the restaurant commented. “Bar tab was almost 80% and he’s complaining about the cost of his meal keep drinking buddy - we get paid off everything.”

The comment seemed to confirm chatter about Brooks’ post that had been appended to the original photo and message as “context” on X, where it became a meme."

more there

[JanMichael]

37. "keep drinking buddy - we get paid off everything" ouch

He can pretend he's not an effete twit snob but...

I had the occasional night out when the food was less than half of the bill didn't feel the need to humble brag that I was eating such expensive food or ignore the fact that I drank most of my dinner.

[struggle4progress]

33. Starkle Starkle Little Twink

[betsuni]

36. Bad, bad whiskey

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