There is definitely an audience for expensive restaurants. It's just not you

[BlueHouse]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-1000-date-night-has-dcs-tasting-menu-culture-hit-a-tipping-point/2016/09/15/359de842-7464-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_date-night-9am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

The $1,000 date night: Has D.C.’s tasting-menu culture hit a tipping point?

There is definitely an audience for these expensive restaurants. It just might not be you.

I guess this is the gist of the matter.  There is such a competition for people to attend the "best" in every category, (even as a one-off, special occassion event) that it now seems normal for this type of price-point to exist.  If you ask people around this area if they've been to these restaurants, the standard response is "not yet", which implies most people (including me) fully expect that they will eventually visit.  This one sentence hit home to me and is making me rethink some things. 

[Helvegen]

I would also say not yet, but I would mean that in the most vaguest sense. I mean at some point in my life, I might consider it, if I had the money to blow, the opportunity (as in I was going to be in the area of something like The French Laundry anyway), and the desire. It is the same in that I would like to hike to the top of Kilimanjaro. I mean, great if it happens, but I won't die disappointed if it doesn't.

[slugline]

For diners, tasting menus are all about “the idea of ritual social performance, signaling your worth to others,” said economist Tyler Cowen, who also blogs about ethnic restaurants and frugal dining.

I have a hard time conceiving of a single date meal that would deliver $1000 worth of satisfaction to me. However, I can easily make sense of this as a way of signaling to your social group that you are the type of successful person who can afford to spend $1000 on dinner out.

[MgoSam]

I would be willing to spend $1000 for a dinner for two at French Laundry, but that's probably the only restaurant I would consider spending this much at.

[Papa Mustache]

It would require shopping for clothes... More $$$...