$666 “Douche” Burger a hoax, but NYC food cart owner reports interest

It may have been revealed as a joke in the end, but at least one New York food cart diner was reportedly … douche-y enough to bite.

A New York City food truck, 666 Burger, recently began offering a $666 burger — according to news reports, the world’s most expensive food truck hamburger.

The "Douche Burger" — according to the 666 Burger Facebook page — comprised a Kobe beef patty, wrapped in gold leaf and stuffed with foie gras, covered in Gruyere cheese that has been melted with champagne steam, Bloomberg reported.

Toppings included lobster, caviar, truffles and a barbecue sauce made from coffee beans. 

Franz Aliquo, the 666 Burger's co-owner, unabashedly told Bloomberg that the idea for the burger came from "our deep-seated disgust and hatred of all the other douche burgers out there."

"We were talking about terrible overtopped burgers one night, and my girlfriend at the time said, 'Somebody should just make a burger and pile all the rich people stuff on it and it would be the douchiest thing in the world,'" Aliquo said.

Inspirations reportedly included:

• the [$295] Serendipity burger, served in the East Side restaurant of the same name whose website describes it thus: a "mix of Japanese Wagyu beef infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, seasoned with Salish Alderwood smoked Pacific sea salt, topped with cheddar cheese";
• Burger King's "The Burger," comprising flame grilled Wagyu Beef, topped with white truffles in an Iranian saffron and truffle bun and priced at 95 pounds ($150), according to the London Telegraph; and
• the $5,000 "Fleurburger — creation of chef Hubert Keller at his Las Vegas restaurant Fleur — made from Wagyu beef, truffles foie gras and Champagne, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Aliquo continued: "So we’re like, 'Yeah! We’re gonna do it.'

"We got our license for the truck, and we’re on the streets about three days a week now. We took everything that people socially associate with rich people food and threw it on a burger and made it the most expensive, disgusting burger ever."

He then set about marketing the burger on Facebook, describing it simply as "a f—ing burger filled and topped with rich people shit… It may not taste good, but it will make you feel rich as f–k. Douche."

However, Aliquo didn't waste any time pointing out to Bloomberg News this week that it was all a joke:

"It's a satirical expression of these burgers that people make and try to sell in all seriousness. We took the most offensive pieces from other famous burgers and just took it up a level. I mean, what’s the point of putting gold flakes on your food? It doesn’t add to the flavor. It’s just to be able to say you ate gold flakes."

According to Slate, the US Food and Drug Administration hasn't evaluated edible gold — which is taste and calory neutral — for safety, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t consider it toxic. Gold flakes can reportedly cost $120 to $150 per gram, and there are kosher and halal varieties.

Aliquo said only one person had actually bought the burger — a man named Lance Brody, photos of whom were posted online, though even Brody looks somewhat contrived.

However, even if no one orders the 666 burger, Aliquo is confident the stunt has so far attracted people to the cart, where they will usually opt for one of the $6.66 burgers, Bloomberg wrote.

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