Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The wealthy are still eating out. And spending a lot. Some order $450 sushi twice a week at New York’s Masa; others visit Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas dozens of times a year. Some attend $1,500 dinners at the French Laundry in Napa Valley; others book private parties at Alinea in Chicago at a cost of $25,000 to $50,000.

One of those Alinea buyouts was reserved by a “non-U.S. automaker” for early this year, said co-owner Nick Kokonas. The recession does not loom large for all.

“We have individuals who literally come twice a week,” said Veda Nishikawa, business manager for Masa Takayama’s eponymous Manhattan sushi temple, where the prix-fixe menu is $450 per person, exclusive of wine, tax and mandatory 20 percent gratuity. “It’s slowed down a bit,” but Nishikawa said business in 2008 was still better than the year before.

As U.S. eateries go through what the National Restaurant Association calls the “most challenging period” since the early 1980s, representatives for seven of America’s most expensive restaurants said their venues continue to attract clients, even in New York and Las Vegas, two cities that have been hit hard by the financial crisis. These restaurants are small, celebrated and expensive. Dinner for two will easily run over $500 at all of them.

“Even in these tough economic times, there is still opportunity for higher-check upscale operators,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president for the restaurant association.

Masa’s Expansion

For those with high incomes, “$600 is not going to change your life... It’s really like someone owning a Mercedes Benz and worrying about the price of gasoline,” said Nishikawa, who’s working with Takayama to open a Las Vegas restaurant called Shaboo, where prix-fixe dinners will cost “more than at Masa.”

Representatives from Quintessentially, an international concierge service where annual U.S. memberships start at $1,800, said they haven’t seen a reduction in high-end dining requests.

“I have not had anyone that used to book expensive restaurants tell me they’d do a mid-range restaurant or something like that,” said Natalie Fisher, a Los Angeles-based account manager.

One of the concierge firm’s most popular Las Vegas bookings is the restaurant Joel Robuchon. The 64-seat venue offered a white-truffle menu for $500 per person this winter, and 40 percent of diners were ordering it, according to Alex Gaudelet executive director of food and beverage at the MGM Grand, where the Michelin three-starred venue is located.

No Layoffs

The restaurant’s most popular choice is still the 16-course tasting for $385. There’s also a six-course option for $250.

“If you go from having $100 million to $70 million, it doesn’t mean you can’t spend the same amount of money for dinner,” said Gaudelet. He said one diner made at least 30 visits to the restaurant in 2008.

Both regular dining and private events were up in 2008, and Gaudelet said Robuchon will “do well” in 2009. Despite the economic conditions “Joel Robuchon’s brand and product is not going to be affected in any way, shape or form.”

The restaurant is now offering a $500 black-truffle menu.

“We have no reason to think it won’t sell,” Gaudelet said.

But not all high-end venues are immune.

Private dining has been down since August, said Franck Savoy, who runs his father’s restaurant, Guy Savoy, at Caesar’s Palace.

Savoy said revenue was up in 2008 from a year earlier, but only because he has been “cutting expenses,” including having chefs work four shifts instead of five every week. “I didn’t lay off,” he said.

Cutting Costs

The 75-seat restaurant offers a $190, four-course menu, and a prestige menu for $290. The nine-course tasting is Savoy’s most popular option: It includes the chef’s signature black truffle and artichoke soup.

Although clients aren’t cutting back on food, they are refraining from ordering extravagant wines, says Savoy. He’s seen his beverage bill fall to $100 per table, down from $175 in 2007.

Prices for fine dining show no signs of a ceiling. As part of an effort to showcase their new cookbooks, chefs Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz teamed up for a trio of $1,500-per-person 20- course dinners last fall at Per Se, Alinea and the French Laundry -- Keller’s 62-seat restaurant in Yountville, California. The meal prices included wine, tax, tip and copies of the cookbooks. All sold out.

But even the most exclusive restaurants are taking longer to fill up their books, sometimes allowing for impulse shoppers. Masa’s Nishikawa said the restaurant normally takes “one or two” walk-in diners on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bloomberg News was able to secure same-day or same week- reservations at every restaurant discussed in this article.

‘Intimate Affairs’

Still, the dining rooms do fill up. According to a representative, the French Laundry, which charges $240 for nine- course tasting menus, “thankfully” always books up.

And so does the 64-seat Per Se, which charges $275 per person. “The differences we’re seeing are minimal,” said Raj Dagstani, director of operations at Per Se. “Gratefully, yes, our restaurant is fully reserved every night.”

But Per Se has seen changes in trends for larger parties. Dagstani says there’s been an increased demand for “intimate affairs and social gatherings, birthdays and anniversaries, while there has been less of a demand for corporate events.”

Automaker Anomaly

And then there is Alinea and its automaker party.

The temple of molecular gastronomy, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park district, was named America’s best restaurant by Gourmet Magazine in 2006.

“We’re not an investment-banking town,” said Kokonas, the restaurant’s co-owner. “We’re a trading town. From a trading perspective, this is a busy time.”

Diners reserve tables up to three months in advance and diners pay $145 for a 12-course tasting menu, or $225 for 26 courses.

Alinea’s private dining room can’t handle parties over 14, so to meet demand for larger events, Kokonas says the restaurant has plans to build a private dining space in a separate location that might double as a “small bites” restaurant. He expects it to open sometime in 2010.

In the meantime, larger parties buy out the restaurant for $25,000-$50,000 a night. Kokonas, a former derivatives trader, said a “non-U.S. automaker,” is hosting an event for 55 people in February. He declined to name the firm.

In September, Kokonas said he was wondering “whether the demand curve will be there in January-February.” In December he clarified: “I think we might be just fine.”

And as some restaurants raise prices to meet higher food costs, other expensive restaurants are starting to offer more affordable menus or cut pricier options, perhaps in an effort to drum up corporate diners with more restricted expense accounts.

Save on Savoy

Savoy added a “Bubble Bar” to his restaurant in 2007, offering a $40 menu of four small bites. Per Se introduced a five-course, $175 lunch last January; Restaurant Michel Richard Citronelle in Washington D.C. eliminated its $240 grand degustation menu last summer.

Per Se says it was responding to requests for a shorter menu at lunch; Citronelle said the $240 menu was “not cost- effective” and that diners were often “too full to finish.”

Instead, Citronelle patrons can now choose from the regular $190 “promenade gourmande” or 3-course, $105 menus.

“We have been lucky so far, and business is pretty steady,” said a Citronelle representative, adding that “Washington seems to be a different market from other U.S. cities, we have not really seen a drop in high-end guests.”

Diners who insist on something more expensive can still reserve Citronelle’s chef’s table -- starting at $350 per person.

Of course, not everyone who spends oodles of cash on tasting menus actually has oodles of cash to spend. “People save up to eat here,” Kokonas said of Alinea. He recounted a story where a regular customer asked if it would be “cool” to pay for one of the $1,500 meals in installments.

“Yeah, of course,” Kokonas replied.

To contact the writer on the story: Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 13, 2009 00:01 EST