Under capitalism, there are ways to beat inflation, by Brian Abate and George Fiala

Dial back a couple of years and you come to a world in complete disarray, as the mysterious Covid bug pretty quickly disrupted our normal way of life.

In the space of a week or so in March 2020, the country went from a bustling and booming economy to one where almost a quarter of the country wasn’t able to go to work because of mandatory lockdowns,

Instead of the normal productive economy producing tons of consumer goods providing profits for all kinds of companies and institutions, our government stepped in to provide the cash to keep people alive and fed and companies to stay in business until the time that a vaccine was produced in enough quantity to get things back to normal again.

Lots and lots of money was pushed into the system by the Feds, populated by both Republicans and Democrats, which kept everything going.

Sooner or later things started to come back, fans were back in the seats at baseball games, factories and schools restarted, and that’s just exactly how government is supposed to work, both for and by the people.

But of course, as demand returned, and also as fuel prices, not set in the United States, rose, prices started rising in all parts of the economy.

That was pretty much to be expected, a reaction to the big quantities of cash infused into the system. It was quite annoying, especially to this paper which pretty much supports the policies of the Democratic party, that the Republican platform started to use this inflation as a campaign strategy against Democrats in the upcoming elections.

So we decided to take a closer look at this inflation and price out costs of breakfast and lunch at some of our local delis and bodegas. We looked at the iconic bacon, egg and cheese on a roll and a small coffee for breakfast, and a turkey and cheese sandwich with a soda for lunch.

Brian did the research, and his results are below. We found that prices did vary, sometimes because of location and quality, but sometimes not. We believe that some of our readers have to worry about prices, while others don’t.

Not all of the places we went to offered the bacon, egg and cheese on a roll, but of the ones that did, we found the typical price including a small coffee to be around $6.50.

But there was a large variety. On the low end was Edward’s Lunch, a superfine Spanish restaurant on Lorraine Street, where you can get this breakfast for just $4.95. Beating that by a nickel is a new deli on the corner of Hamilton and Clinton. Possibly that low price is because it’s a brand new deli.

Edward’s has been gracing the neighborhood for a number of years now.

On the high end is the Mex-Carroll Diner in the Columbia Waterfront District, at $8, and Court Street’s Brooklyn Bread at $8.25. Of course, both of these places are sit down restaurants, a step up from a bodega in terms of cost of operation. The advantage is of course that you get to sit down inside, or actually outside as well, as both of these places have pretty attractive outside areas (not the Covid shacks on the street).

Tropic Deli, on Court and Wyckoff, is the outlier at $9.48. We don’t actually recommend that you shop there, because they were not very nice to us when we asked if we could leave the Star-Revue there.

We checked out some non delis as well, and found some predictable results – namely that places like DeFonte’s, Black Flamingo and East One Coffee do not make a bacon breakfast sandwich their main stock in trade.

DeFonte’s of course is world famous for other things. For breakfast you might consider their egg and potato hero, and for lunch the Vinny special. Forget about the price, these are bargains no matter what you pay.

The Black Flamingo is a somewhat recent coffeeshop on Van Brunt, and you are paying for both atmosphere and higher quality foodstuffs, namely lattes and croissants.

East End Coffee on Court Street across from the Chase bank is a high end coffee purveyor that turns into a restaurant at dinnertime. You go there not for a takeout sandwich but rather a chance to linger over a fancy coffee and pastry.

Listed below are the results of our survey, which was taken during the month of August.
F & M Cafe: 383 Van Brunt St.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6.95. Buttered roll: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.25.

Food Bazaar, Red Hook
Turkey sandwich: $6.99. Chicken sandwich: $6.99. Coffee $1.50

Stop 1: 368 Van Brunt St.
No Bacon, Egg and cheese. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $6. Turkey and cheese on a hero: $7.50. Small coffee: $1. No roll with butter.

Defonte’s: 379 Columbia St.
Turkey hero with cheese (and eggplant): $10.50. Roast beef hero with cheese (and eggplant): $10.50.

Black Flamingo: 281 Van Brunt
Quiche: $8. Ham and cheese on a bagel/croissant: $7. Pastries: between $3.75-$4.50. Latte: $4.

Pioneer Mart: 322 Van Brunt
Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $5.50. Roll with butter: $1.25. Small coffee: $1.50.

Edward Lunch: 56 Lorraine St.
Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $3.95. Bacon, egg & cheese on a hero: $5.95. Buttered roll: $1. Ham and cheese on roll: $4. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $4.50 Cuban: $8. Coffee: small: $1. Medium: $1.50. Large: $1.75. 32 Oz OJ: $4.99.

Bonafide: 118 Kane St.
Bacon, eggs & cheese on a roll: $5.99. Bagel with butter or roll with butter: $2.99. House blend coffee: $2.29. 16 Oz Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Tropicana Pure Premium OJ: $3.29. Turkey and cheese sandwich: $7.99. Turkey and cheese sandwich with lettuce and tomato $9.49. Turkey BLT: $7.99.

Red Hook Food: 603 Clinton St.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6. Buttered roll: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.50. Tropicana: $1.99.

President Food: 247 Columbia
Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $7 (grill closes at 1 PM.) Turkey and cheese on a roll: $6. Roll with butter: $1.75. Small coffee: $1. Tropicana OJ: $2.

Margaret Palca: 191 Columbia
Roll with butter: $2. Bacon, egg & cheese: $4.50 Turkey and cheese on a roll: $8. Roast beef on a roll: $8.50. Tropicana OJ: $2.50. Fresh squeezed OJ: $5. Coffee: $2.

Carroll’s Diner: 192 Columbia
Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $6 Fresh squeezed OJ: $5.95. Medium coffee: $2. Large Coffee: $2.50. Fresh turkey sandwich: $9.25. Ham+cheese sandwich: $7. Roast beef sandwich: $9.25. Roll with butter: $1.50

Hamiltom Convenience: 561 Clinton
Bacon, egg & cheese: $3.95 Turkey+cheese sandwich: $6.90 Roast beef+cheese: $6.90 Juice: $1.75 Coffee: $0.95

Caputo’s: 329 Court St.
Buttered Roll: $1.15 Chocolate Chip Cookie: $0.72.

Martinez Grocery: 370 Court
Turkey and cheese sandwich: $5.50. Roll with butter: $1.25. Small coffee: $2. Small Tropicana OJ: $1.75. No bacon egg & cheese.

East One: 384 Court St.
Expresso: $3.50 Macchiato: $3.75 Cappuccino: $4.25 Latte: $4.50 Chai Latte: $4.50 Turmeric Latte: $4.50 Local Honey Latte: $5.50 Hot Cider: $4. Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Fried green tomato, dill mayo, caraway coleslaw with your choice of fries or salad: $18.

Brooklyn Bread: 412 Court St.
Bacon, egg & cheese on a bagel: $6.50. Turkey and cheese on a bagel: $6.50. Bagel with Butter: $3.69. Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Fresh squeezed OJ: $6. Coffee: $1.75.

Tropic Deli: 205 Court St.
Coffee: $3.49. Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Bagel with butter: $1.99. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $5.99. Roast beff sandwich with cheese: $8.95. Turkey sandwich with cheese: $9.95.

Food U Desire: 301 Smith St.
Turkey and cheese on a roll: $7.36 Buttered roll: $1.30. Small coffee: $1.36. Small OJ: $1.75. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $5.10.

Cobble Hill Deli: 493 Henry St.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6. Roll and butter: $2. Small coffee: $1.50.

Garden Gourmet: 531 Henry St.
Tropicana OJ or Snapple: $2 Fresh squeezed OJ or AJ : $4.99. Coffee: $2. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $4.99. Bagel or roll with butter: $1.25. Turkey, Roast Beef or Chicken sandwich with cheese on a roll: $6.99.

Fine Food: Union & 4th Ave.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $4. Turkey and cheese: $7. Roll and butter: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.25.

Bay Ridge Deli: 7506 5th Ave.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $4.99. Turkey and cheese: $5.49. Roll and butter: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.50.

Stop 77 Deli: 7625 5th Ave.
Bacon, egg and cheese: $4. Turkey and cheese: $6. Roll ands butter: $1. Small coffee: $1.

1 Stop Mini Mart: 78th St. and 5th Ave.
No sandwiches or rolls. Small coffee: $1.25

George Fiala

Founder and editor of the Red Hook Star-Revue. George is also a musician and one-time progressive rock disk jockey, in York, Pennsylvania, also birthplace of Mrs. Don Imus.