By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com

One never knows what might be the next hot talking point of New York City. To quote former Mayor Eric Adams and our unofficial poet laureate, “This is a place where every day you wake up you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our trade center through a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s about to open.”

And sometimes, that new business is about to open is a Greenpoint wine bar called Gigi’s that sells a roast half chicken for $44. $70 for a full chicken. I don’t exactly know when grumblings about Gigi’s pricing first started, but I know after the bar opened on April 8, they reached a fever pitch when Councilmember Chi Ossé posted approximately eight words on Instagram: “$40 Half Chicken At A Wine Bar? Really?”

Some agreed with Osse, calling the chicken overpriced. Others thought Ossé was unfairly attacking small business, particularly since he doesn’t even represent the district wherein Gigi’s falls.

My own takeaway? Well, I guess I have to go try this chicken.

I made a reservation for an early Friday evening and recruited my friend Lacey to come along with me. And let me preface the rest of this by saying that I am not a professional restaurant-goer. I like food, and I eat it, but that’s about where it starts and ends for me. I don’t want, nor do I need, to try every new restaurant that opens, so it’s really a credit to this discourse that I felt compelled to visit Gigi’s at all.

We sat at the bar, which I recommend because you get to watch them blowtorch the $44 chicken in front of you and you can hear them say things like “corner” and “behind” like they do on The Bear. We each ordered chilled red wine alongside the bread and butter, market pickles and of course — the $44 half chicken, which came with three sauces, roasted potatoes, and market greens. It was enough food for two people. When all was said and done, we even had chicken left over.

It made for a perfectly nice spring evening. I can now say I’ve tried a cool new bar in my neighborhood and that I enjoyed the controversial chicken. For those who balk at the price, the solution is simple. You don’t have to eat the chicken.

But of course, this isn’t really about the chicken. This is New York City. We all know there’s always going to be some place charging a price that feels absurd, with a line of people around the block ready to pay it. At one point, that place was the outlier. The “can you believe they charge that?” place. Now, increasingly, that place is every place. 

With each passing day, week, month, year, more and more small businesses shutter their storefronts, replaced by a similar, but more yassified business. A bar that closes is replaced by a sleeker, more Instagram friendly bar, where drinks cost $22 instead of $15. A bakery charges $7 for a cookie instead of $4. These prices add up, and cheaper alternatives are few and far between.

It’s well within Gigi’s right to charge $44 for a half chicken in order to make their $9,000 monthly rent. And without commercial rent stabilization, Gigi’s rent will increase, and so too, their price for half chickens.

If that sounds pretty bad to you, then I have some good news: State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher have introduced the Small Business Rent Stabilization Act with the goal of lowering prices for storefronts, and in turn, for customers. Contact your elected official and ask them to sign on to the bill. 

As New Yorkers, I know we’ll never stop complaining, but wouldn’t it be nice to complain about something else for a change?