UES Store Sells Egg Salad Sandwich For $30

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The egg salad sandwich is a New York City staple. Walk into any diner or deli and you can likely order a solid version for less than $10. But one of the Upper East Side's newest high-end restaurants is giving it a luxurious pricetag.

Marky's on Madison, an expansion of the decades-old Miami caviar seller Marky's, is offering its take on the staple for a whopping $30. The hefty cost is due to two special ingredients: beluga sturgeon meat and caviar.

The chefs at Huso, a restaurant attached to the Marky's storefront, designed two special sandwiches using beluga meat for the launch of its brunch menu three weeks ago. One of them, a $35 beluga meat bacon, egg and cheese, was discontinued because it was too difficult to make consistently.

But the egg salad sandwich remains an option for Upper East Siders who want to up their brunch game. The sandwich consists of a Russian egg and potato salad called Olivier salad with mixed-in smoked beluga meat and topped with white sturgeon caviar to add saltiness to the creamy salad, Marky's brand ambassador David Bashkov said.

"It has smoked beluga that we have from our farm in Florida. The beluga meat cannot be bought anywhere else except here in our store or in Miami, and it is incorporated just like a smoked fish egg salad sandwich," Bashkov said.

Bashkov added that Marky's is the only business in the country that is licensed to sell the meat and caviar of the endangered beluga sturgeon — another reason why the sandwich may cost $30. The meat can also be bought by itself at Marky's store on Madison Avenue and East 81st Street so people can try at adding it to their own egg salad recipes, Bashkov said.

Whether New Yorkers are willing to splurge $30 on egg salad remains to be seen. Marky's just launched its brunch menu three weeks ago, so it's too early to tell if the sandwich will be a hit, Bashkov said. The $35 bacon, egg and cheese was pulled from the menu after just four days due to its difficulty to prepare, but it managed to get some bad press during its short run.

"To be honest, I think [people didn't like it] just because in New York, it's a really popular sandwich. The bacon egg and cheese sandwich is very popular here. And you can get it anywhere at any bodega for like literally five to eight dollars," Bashkov said.

An encouraging sign for the sandwich is that its base, the Olivier salad with beluga meat, is a hit on the restaurant's seven-course dinner tasting menu.

"It's one of our top sellers. I mean, it's a tasting menu, so everybody gets it, but it's a dish that everybody really, you know, says something about, because it's something very special," Bashkov said.

Marky's on Madison is open for brunch on the weekends.