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A business lunch in this city can do serious damage to your diet and your wallet. 

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After all, New York is the home of the power lunch. The very name says it all: powerful people, major decisions, big expenses. 

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Yet, as the economy cratered and the landscape quickly changed, companies cut back on corporate cards. 

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But according to the restaurant ratings guru Tim Zagat, lunch didn't languish for long. 

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I could give you 30 or 40 restaurants in New York off the top of my head 

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where you will find a full house and nobody is eating less than a hundred dollars for lunch. 

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At the top of the tree, the Four Seasons Restaurant, a true year-rounder. 

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A hundred dollars for lunch is no big deal if you're trying to make a million-dollar deal. 

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If you go to the Four Seasons, you're likely to be making a billion-dollar deal. Lunch there is like going through a bunch of front pages of Time magazine. 

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If you're going to the Four Seasons, you're not worried about the bill. 

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If you have to think about the cost, you shouldn't be there. 

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I probably shouldn't be here, but I am anyway. 

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"Power lunch" was basically coined at the Four Seasons restaurant in the 1980s and ever since then we never stopped. 

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When you take somebody out, you're entertaining them. 

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This is about breaking bread. It's about, you know, enjoying life. It's not just spending money. 

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Affordable fixed-price menus aim squarely at the businessperson and are now popping up across New York. 

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You know it's a trend when Michelin-star restaurants like Jean-Georges are leading the way. 

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You have a $38 menu, so you have two courses off of a menu that would be considerably more at dinner. What it allows you to do is enjoy that luxury in a way that doesn't break the bank. 

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And the business lunch is still thriving, would you say?

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Absolutely, if not more so than it ever has been. 

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According to American Express, individuals are spending less, while corporate spending is the driver of growth. 

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This used to be the meat market of New York, and now it's the meet market of New York. 

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The Midtown restaurants are going for the established crowd, but Downtown restaurants aim for the titans in T-shirts. 

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The Standard Grill, where mains run from around $15. Your client's impressed you could get a table, your boss even more so. 

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We definitely have a younger clientele here. We're very sexy and very fashionista and very cutting-edge. 

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Some of your biggest deals are made in jeans and a T-shirt. 

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Be it suit or sandals, the power lunch as an institution remains, 

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and that's because it's not about eating a meal. It's about making the right impression on the right person, regardless of the cost.

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If you're meeting somebody who is the next big deal, forget about the price.