This $150 Vegas cocktail comes in a $30K handbag
The Hermès Birkin bag, arguably the most prized handbag in the world, starts at about $13,000 retail for a “basic” model and can rise into the hundreds of thousands for custom bags made with exotic skins and high-end hardware.
You can’t just buy a Birkin bag, even if you have the money. Customers must establish a relationship with an Hermès salesperson, purchase a bunch of other Hermès merchandise, then practice patience until they’re invited to buy a Birkin. Which can take years.
But right now in Las Vegas, at Papi Steak in the Fontainebleau on the Strip, you can get your hands on a $30,000 Birkin in classic Hèrmes orange — for about a minute, just enough time to Instagram the bag and the craft confection it carries. The drink — It’s Not a Bag, It’s a Cocktail — mingles Belvedere 10 Vodka, grapefruit oleo-saccharum (a sweet fragrant syrup) and Lillet Blanc, with caviar riding sidecar. Cost: $150.
The Birkin, though, leaves with the server.
Chance encounter
Papi Steak introduced the cocktail last week in Vegas, following its recent launch (to social media pandemonium) at the Papi mothership in Miami. In Vegas, the restaurant has also debuted the Papirazzi ($100), made with Grey Goose Altius Vodka, pomegranate, Cointreau, agave, and lemon. The cocktail is accessorized with a bedazzled camera for taking a Polaroid the guest keeps (the camera, like the Birkin, leaves with the server.)
The Birkin takes its name from Jane Birkin, the late English singer and actress who happened to be sitting next to the late Jean-Louis Dumas, chairman of Hermès, on a flight in 1983. She complained that she couldn’t find a stylish weekend bag that wouldn’t spill its contents. He sketched some possibilities right there, and the first Birkin was produced in 1984. That bag, with its worn straps and scratched leather, is being auctioned by Sotheby’s next month — which has not commented on an estimated price.
The Birkin move offers a new twist on the Vegas inclination toward cocktail extravagance. The move also invites an obvious question: Who at Papi Steak had the juice to get a Birkin bag in the first place?
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.